Kundli for NRIs and people born abroad: birth time, time zone and place

Many NRIs and their children ask whether a Kundli made abroad is as good as one made in India. It is, as long as three details are right: the exact birth time, the birth place and the time zone for that date. Small mistakes here can change the lagna.

Birth time

Use the time on the birth certificate or hospital record. Family memory is often off by an hour or more, and the lagna changes about every two hours. If two times are given, check the hospital record.

Birth place

Use the town or city where the birth happened, not where the family lives now and not where the parents come from. The place gives the latitude and longitude that fix the lagna. A good astrology tool finds it from the town name.

Time zone and daylight saving

The chart is calculated from universal time, so the local time has to be converted. That means the right zone and the right daylight saving rule for that country and year. Daylight saving rules have changed over the decades, and a wrong offset of one hour is a common mistake. Our engine uses historical time zone data for this.

If the time is unknown

• The Moon sign can usually be found from the date alone, so rashifal and matching often still work.
• Lagna, houses and dashas need the time. A trained astrologer can sometimes narrow it down by matching past life events, which is called rectification.
• Without a time, a chart set for noon gives a rough picture but not a precise one.

Matching with an Indian family

Kundli Milan needs the Moon sign and nakshatra, so the birth time matters if the Moon is close to a boundary. Share the exact time and place of birth with the other family early so that both charts are made the same way.

Take a photo of the birth certificate and save it. It is the one document that settles any debate about the time.