Immigration and Emigration Controller M. N. Ranasinghe said that the Department had received more than 20,000 dual citizenship applications so far and they had already issued certificates to 4,200 of them.

The fee to be paid by the primary applicant requesting for dual citizenship was increased to Rs. 300,000 in the 2016 budget. However, the amount to be paid by the applicant's spouse remains unchanged at Rs. 50,000.

The current government resumed granting dual citizenship to expatriate Sri Lankan nationals on 30 April 2015 after a lapse of four years.

The previous Government temporarily suspended granting dual citizenship in February 2011in order to draft a new stringent criterion to select eligible applicants.

The strategy of awarding dual citizenship in Sri Lanka was launched in the year 1987. More than 40,000 are now enjoying dual citizenship.