NextraLogicSoftware
01Kathmandu · UTC+05:45

Offshore software development from Nepal for US teams

A Kathmandu working day and a US working day do not overlap. That is the honest starting point, and it is worth designing around rather than papering over.

Time difference between Nepal and the United States

Kathmandu local time at the start and end of a working day in the United States, your local time when a 10:00–18:00 Kathmandu day starts and ends, and the number of working hours the two share.
Your zone9:00 am for you5:00 pm for youKathmandu opens, your timeKathmandu closes, your timeShared hours
New York (Eastern)EST7:45 pm3:45 am (next day)11:15 pm (previous day)7:15 amnone
New York (Eastern)EDT6:45 pm2:45 am (next day)12:15 am8:15 amnone
San Francisco (Pacific)PST10:45 pm6:45 am (next day)8:15 pm (previous day)4:15 amnone
San Francisco (Pacific)PDT9:45 pm5:45 am (next day)9:15 pm (previous day)5:15 amnone

Kathmandu times shown for a 10:00–18:00 working day in Nepal against 09:00–17:00 in the United States. New York (Eastern) is 10 hours 45 minutes behind Kathmandu on EST. On a standard working day the two do not overlap at all. “Previous day” means Kathmandu's working day starts on your evening before. Convert other hours in the Nepal time converter and overlap calculator.

Working with a team in Nepal from the United States

Nepal is far enough east that the two business days miss each other completely. There is no clever scheduling that recovers a shared afternoon — the arithmetic simply does not allow one. Any offshore arrangement that pretends otherwise is quietly asking somebody to work nights, and that is how these engagements fall apart in month four.

The version that lasts is asynchronous by design. Decisions get written down rather than reached in a call. Handoffs carry enough context to act on without a follow-up question. A short standing window at the edge of both days — the start of yours, the end of theirs — is reserved for the conversations that genuinely need voices, and everything else is expected to survive in writing.

What that buys you is a real overnight cycle. Work you unblock on a Monday afternoon is waiting for you on Tuesday morning, finished. Teams that are already comfortable working in writing tend to find this arrangement productive; teams that run on hallway conversations and same-hour answers usually do not, and it is better to know which one you are before signing anything.

The gap moves twice a year. Nepal does not observe daylight saving and the US does, so every spring the distance closes by an hour and every autumn it opens back up.

Worth knowing in the United States

  • 17 U.S.C. § 204

    Ownership moves in writing

    A transfer of US copyright is valid only in a signed writing. Commissioned code is rarely a work made for hire: that route covers nine listed categories, such as translations, compilations and tests, and needs a written agreement signed by both sides.

    Sources: US Copyright Office, Title 17, Circular 30

  • CCPA

    California wants a contract

    Under California's privacy law, a vendor that processes personal information for a business counts as a service provider only under a written contract, and that contract must bar it from selling or sharing the data or using it for any other purpose.

    Source: California Civil Code § 1798.140

  • 11 holidays

    A federal calendar of its own

    The US has 11 federal holidays, set by 5 U.S.C. 6103. Nepal keeps a different calendar, so a day like Thanksgiving is usually an ordinary working day in Kathmandu.

    Source: US Office of Personnel Management

Each fact links the source it was checked against. Page last updated .

Offshore development questions from the United States

What time is it in Kathmandu when a US workday starts?

When it is 9:00 am in New York, it is 6:45 pm in Kathmandu from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, and 7:45 pm for the rest of the year. In San Francisco, 9:00 am is 9:45 pm or 10:45 pm in Kathmandu. Nepal never changes its clocks, so only the US switch moves the gap.

Do US and Nepal working hours overlap?

Not on a standard day. A 10:00–18:00 day in Kathmandu runs from 12:15 am to 8:15 am in New York during daylight saving time, so it is over before a 9:00 am start. The arrangements that last hand work over in writing at the end of each day and keep one short call at the edge of both days.

Who owns code an offshore team writes for a US company?

Not automatically the company that paid for it. A US copyright transfer is valid only in a signed writing, and commissioned software rarely qualifies as a work made for hire, so the contract needs an express assignment of the code to you, signed by the vendor.

Does the CCPA reach developers outside the US?

The service-provider rules turn on the contract rather than the vendor's location. If your business is covered by California's privacy law, a vendor processing personal information for you counts as a service provider only under a written contract that restricts what it may do with the data, so that contract belongs in place before any production access.

Is Thanksgiving a working day for a team in Nepal?

Usually, yes. Nepal keeps its own holiday calendar, so US federal holidays such as Thanksgiving and Independence Day are normally working days in Kathmandu. Work handed over before a US long weekend can keep moving while your office is closed, as long as the team's own holidays are on the shared calendar too.

Offshore development guides for buyers in the United States

Software development services

The same catalog applies wherever you are — see all services for detail, or the frequently asked questions for how an engagement starts.

Offshore software development for other countries

Get a Quote