Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a user equipment (UE) may receive, from a non-terrestrial network (NTN) entity, a message that is associated with an uplink grant. The UE may select, based at least in part on the message, either a cell-specific offset or an updated offset that is indicated after initial access, as a timing offset that accounts for a propagation delay between a base station of the NTN and the UE. The UE may transmit, to the NTN entity, an uplink communication using the timing offset. Numerous other aspects are described.