Vedic astrology consultations from abroad: how they work

A Jyotish consultation with an astrologer in India is easy to arrange from abroad, but a few details make the difference between a vague reading and a useful one. The most important is an accurate birth time, correctly converted for the time zone and daylight saving in force when you were born. This guide explains how a consultation works for families in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, where to find your birth time, and how kundli matching for marriage is approached.

How a consultation works

• You send your date, time and place of birth, and the questions you want to focus on: career, marriage, health, a move, children or a particular period.
• The astrologer prepares your chart, dasha periods and current transits before the call. You can see the same basics in our free kundli tool and dasha calculator.
• The consultation is held by video or phone, usually for 30 to 60 minutes, in English or Hindi.
• Afterwards you receive a short written summary of the main points and any suggested remedies, which are always optional.

We do not use fear to sell pujas or gemstones, and no astrologer can guarantee outcomes. A good reading helps you understand tendencies and timing so you can make your own decisions.

Scheduling across time zones

India does not use daylight saving, so the gap changes when your country's clocks change:

• UK: 5 hours 30 minutes behind India in winter (GMT), 4 hours 30 minutes in summer (BST).
• US East Coast: 10 hours 30 minutes behind in winter, 9 hours 30 minutes in summer. US West Coast: 13 hours 30 minutes behind in winter, 12 hours 30 minutes in summer.
• Canada: Toronto and Montreal follow Eastern time like the US East Coast. Vancouver is now on permanent Pacific Time (UTC−7), 12 hours 30 minutes behind India all year, and Calgary on permanent Alberta Time (UTC−6), 11 hours 30 minutes behind, since November 2026.
• Australia: Sydney and Melbourne are 5 hours 30 minutes ahead in summer (AEDT) and 4 hours 30 minutes ahead in winter; Brisbane 4 hours 30 minutes ahead all year; Perth 2 hours 30 minutes ahead.

Weekday mornings in North America are evenings in India, and Australian afternoons are Indian mornings, so most families find a slot without staying up late. We always confirm the time in both zones.

Finding your birth time on foreign documents

Birth time is the hardest detail to find for people born abroad, because many certificates do not record it.

• England and Wales: standard birth certificates generally do not show the time of birth, except for twins and other multiple births. Try the hospital's maternity notes, the baby's red book (personal child health record) or family records.
• Scotland: birth certificates do record the time of birth.
• United States: long-form birth certificates usually include the time; the short-form abstract often does not. You can request the long form from the state vital records office.
• Canada: it varies by province; a long-form birth certificate or a copy of the registration may include the time.
• Australia: birth certificates usually do not show the time. The hospital record or the baby's health record book often does.

If you only know an approximate time, such as early morning, tell us. The birth time check tool shows how sensitive your chart is, and the astrologer can use past life events to narrow it down. Be wary of a reading that depends on the exact degree of the ascendant when the time is only a guess.

Daylight saving at the time of birth

A time written on a certificate is local clock time, which may have included daylight saving. A summer birth in London was in BST, not GMT; in some years, such as during the Second World War, Britain used double summer time. The US and Canada had local variations before the 1960s, and states and provinces have changed their rules several times since. Our software uses the historical time zone database for the place of birth, so you should enter the time exactly as recorded, not converted to GMT or IST.

Kundli matching for marriage

For families arranging or blessing a marriage, kundli matching is often the first step. The traditional ashtakoota method compares eight factors from the Moon signs and nakshatras of both partners and gives a score out of 36; 18 or more is traditionally considered acceptable. Our free kundli matching tool shows this score, and the Mangal dosha check is also available.

The guna score is only a starting point. A full matching consultation also looks at the seventh house, Venus and Jupiter, the dashas both partners will run in the early years of marriage, and how Mangal dosha is cancelled or balanced across the two charts. Many matches with a modest guna score work well, and a high score does not guarantee anything. We explain what we see plainly, so the families can decide together.

Preparing for the call

Write your questions down beforehand and put the most important one first; consultations tend to run out of time before they run out of topics. Have your birth details and, for matching, both partners' details ready. If you want to discuss a specific period, such as a job change or a move abroad, note the dates. A quiet room and a stable connection help more than you might expect.

For families in each country

US families can read more on our astrologer consultation page and the online puja guide for the USA. For the UK, Canada and Australia, see online puja in the UK, Canada and Australia. If a consultation suggests a remedy such as Navagraha shanti, it can be done online with your sankalp, but it is never required.