Best Time to Call India, Dubai or the UK from the US
Calling colleagues, clients or family abroad is easy to get wrong when the other side is five to eleven hours ahead. This guide gives practical calling windows from the US East Coast and West Coast to three of the most common destinations, India, Dubai and the United Kingdom, and explains how the windows move during the year.
How the time differences work
India is UTC+5:30 and Dubai is UTC+4 all year; neither changes its clocks. The UK is UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 in summer, changing on the last Sunday in March and October. The US East Coast is UTC−5 in winter and UTC−4 in summer, and the West Coast is three hours behind that, changing on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November.
From New York, that puts the UK 5 hours ahead for most of the year, Dubai 9 hours ahead in winter and 8 in summer, and India 10 hours 30 minutes ahead in winter and 9 hours 30 minutes in summer. From Los Angeles, add three hours to each gap.
Calling the UK
The UK is the easiest of the three. From the East Coast, any time between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM ET reaches London between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM, comfortably inside the British working day. Early morning calls at 7:00 AM ET reach London at noon, which is fine for most offices.
From the West Coast the window is much narrower. 8:00 AM PT is 4:00 PM in London, so calls need to happen first thing. A 7:00 AM PT start gives a full hour before the UK working day ends.
Watch the shoulder weeks in March and late October to early November, when the gap is four hours instead of five because the US and UK change clocks on different dates.
Calling Dubai
The UAE has worked Monday to Friday since 2022, with many government offices finishing early on Friday. From the East Coast, a call between 7:00 and 9:00 AM ET reaches Dubai between 4:00 and 6:00 PM in winter, or 3:00 and 5:00 PM in summer. That is late afternoon in Dubai but still within business hours.
From the West Coast there is effectively no overlap with the Dubai working day. A 7:00 AM PT call is 6:00 or 7:00 PM in Dubai. The alternative is an evening US call: 9:00 PM PT reaches Dubai at 8:00 or 9:00 AM the next morning.
Calling India
India is the hardest. From the East Coast, the best daytime option is an early start: 7:30 to 9:00 AM ET reaches India between 6:00 and 7:30 PM in winter, or 5:00 and 6:30 PM in summer. Many Indian teams that work with US clients are used to staying a little later for these calls.
The other option is a US evening call that reaches India at the start of its day. 9:30 to 11:00 PM ET reaches India between 8:00 and 9:30 AM in winter, or 7:00 and 8:30 AM in summer.
From the West Coast, evening is usually better than morning. 7:00 to 9:00 PM PT reaches India between 8:30 and 10:30 AM the next day in winter, or 7:30 and 9:30 AM in summer.
Personal calls
For family calls the constraint is usually sleep rather than office hours. US weekend mornings work well for all three destinations: 9:00 AM ET on a Saturday is early afternoon in London, early evening in Dubai and mid-evening in India. Sunday evenings in the US reach India and Dubai on Monday morning, which can clash with the start of the working week.
Check the exact date
Because the US, UK and EU change clocks on different dates and India and Dubai never change, the gaps above shift several times a year. For important calls, check the exact date in a converter that uses live time zone rules, and include both local times in the invite so nobody has to do the arithmetic.