Longitude
If you work in the US with a team in India, you have probably noticed there is no comfortable time to meet. That is not bad planning. In a standard 9-to-5 day, the US and India share no working hours at all.
Here is where the real windows are, and how teams that do this every day make it work.
The gap, city by city
India runs on one time zone, India Standard Time (IST), and does not change its clocks. The US does. So the gap depends on the season.
Winter (US on standard time, November to March):
- New York is 10 hours 30 minutes behind India. 9am in New York is 7:30pm in India.
- Chicago is 11 hours 30 minutes behind. 9am in Chicago is 8:30pm in India.
- San Francisco is 13 hours 30 minutes behind. 9am in San Francisco is 10:30pm in India.
Summer (US on daylight time, March to November): every gap is one hour shorter. New York is 9 hours 30 minutes behind, Chicago 10 hours 30 minutes, San Francisco 12 hours 30 minutes.
That half hour catches people out. India is offset from UTC by five and a half hours, so a meeting on the hour in the US lands on the half hour in India.
The windows that work
Because neither side's 9-to-5 overlaps, one side has to stretch. The two common patterns:
US early morning, India evening. This is the most common.
- New York 8am is 6:30pm in India in winter, 5:30pm in summer.
- Chicago 7am is 6:30pm in India in winter, 5:30pm in summer.
- San Francisco 7am is 8:30pm in India in winter, 7:30pm in summer. That is late for India, so West Coast teams often use the second pattern.
US evening, India morning.
- San Francisco 8pm is 9:30am the next day in India in winter, 8:30am in summer.
- New York 9pm is 7:30am the next day in India in winter, 6:30am in summer. Usually too early for India.
Remember the date: an evening meeting in the US is the next morning in India. If you send a calendar invite for "Thursday", check which Thursday each side sees.
Why your meeting moved by an hour
Twice a year, a US-India meeting shifts by an hour on one side without anyone touching it. That is daylight saving time.
When the US moved its clocks back on November 1, 2026, a meeting fixed at 8am in New York went from 5:30pm to 6:30pm in India. When the US moves forward on March 14, 2027, it will go back to 5:30pm. India's clocks did not change; the US's did.
If your meeting is fixed to the US time, India absorbs the shift. If it is fixed to India's time, the US does. Decide which side owns the time, and tell the team before the change, not after. For the full calendar of clock changes, see when your cross-time-zone meetings move.
How US-India teams make it work
- Keep the shared window short. One focused 30-to-60 minute overlap a day, not a scatter of meetings.
- Take turns with the late slot, so it is not always India staying until 8pm.
- Write things down. Decisions and questions in writing let the other side act while you sleep. Done well, the time difference becomes a relay: work moves forward around the clock.
- Put the handover in writing. End your day with a short note: what is done, what is blocked, and what you need from them.
- Protect India's evening. A 6:30pm call is fine now and then. Every day, it wears people down.
Seeing it at a glance
Doing this arithmetic in your head is how meetings land on the wrong hour. It is easier to see both days side by side.
Longitude shows working hours across time zones on one timeline with its Overlap Finder. The free version compares two time zones, which covers a US-India pair, and every widget size is free, so you can keep both clocks on your Home Screen or Lock Screen. Name each clock after the person, like "Priya, Bengaluru", so you can see whose day it is. Pro compares up to six time zones and adds the World Map with a live day and night line, after a 7-day free trial. There is no account, and your clocks sync through iCloud.
For more city pairs, read the best meeting times for US, Europe and Asia teams.