Best times to meet clients in other time zones: overlap tables

These tables give the hours when both sides are inside a 9:00 am to 5:00 pm working day, for the city pairs freelancers ask about most. This post is part of the scheduling hub. For any other pair or day, use the time zone meeting planner, which compares up to six cities hour by hour.

Clock changes in 2026 and 2027

The US starts daylight saving time at 2:00 am local time on the second Sunday of March and ends it on the first Sunday of November (15 U.S.C. § 260a). The EU starts summer time at 1:00 am UTC on the last Sunday of March and ends it on the last Sunday of October (Directive 2000/84/EC), and the UK uses the same dates (SI 2002/262). Because the rules differ, North America and Europe spend a few weeks each year one hour closer than usual.

Mexico ended daylight saving time for most of the country when the Ley de los Husos Horarios took effect on October 30, 2022; only municipalities on the northern border keep a seasonal time on the US dates (Cámara de Diputados). Brazil ended it nationwide in 2019 (Decreto 9.772), and as of October 2026 no decree has brought it back.

US clients and European clients

When there's no overlap, stretch one end of the day by an hour and alternate who stretches. Los Angeles at 8:00 am is 5:00 pm in Paris most of the year: that's the one slot where both people are at their desks.

Mexico City, São Paulo and the US

A common mistake for Mexican freelancers with US clients: in winter Mexico City matches US Central time (Chicago), and from March to November it matches US Mountain time (Denver), because the US moves and Mexico City doesn't. A weekly call set at 10:00 am Chicago time is 10:00 am in Mexico City in January and 9:00 am in July.

Latin America and Europe

Why recurring calls move during mismatch weeks

A calendar event is stored with the organizer's time zone (the TZID in the iCalendar standard, RFC 5545), and each guest's calendar converts it. If a New York client sets a weekly 10:00 am call, it's 4:00 pm in Paris most weeks and 3:00 pm from March 8 to 28. Nothing is broken, but the Paris side should know in advance. Send a short note the week before each change, or put the series in the time zone of whoever has the tighter day.

• Check your recurring client calls in the first week of March and the last week of October.
• Book cross-ocean calls near the middle of the overlap, not at its edge, so a one-hour shift still lands inside both working days.
• Name zones by city in every email; the abbreviations change twice a year and the cities don't. See how to share availability by email.

How we got these numbers: we took a 9:00 am to 5:00 pm working day in each city and computed the shared hours with the IANA Time Zone Database zones (America/New_York, Europe/Paris and so on) for sample dates in each period of 2026, then checked the period boundaries against the US, EU, UK, Mexican and Brazilian rules cited above. Local exceptions exist: Arizona doesn't change its clocks, and the Mexican border cities follow the US. Count business days for deadlines across countries with the business days calculator.

Cross-zone calls are routine now: Microsoft's June 2025 Work Trend Index special report found that nearly a third of meetings span multiple time zones (Microsoft WorkLab). A SoloWOS booking page shows your free times in each visitor's zone, with your weekly hours set once in your own zone, so clients in Paris or São Paulo see the right local times without a table. Share a booking page clients can schedule from: Basic costs $2/month after a 14-day free trial (card required).