Aspects of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatus for beam selection in uplink-based and downlink-based mobility scenarios, for example, for new radio (NR) systems which can improve handover reliability, reduce handover frequency, and improve power efficiency. Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE). The method generally includes transmitting an uplink reference signal with an indication of a preferred downlink beam and receiving a downlink transmission based, at least in part, on the uplink reference signal.