I had the right eye done 7 years ago, the left eye 4 years ago.

As with all things medical, get this done before you fail a medical.

Go with the monofocal lenses. The mulitfocal lenses have a higher risk of complications, less than ideal outcomes and the FAA does not like them.

Recovery time for a normal job is a day. For pilots it was 6 weeks for a monofocal implant at the time I had mine done, much longer for the multifocals. But I know people who simply went back to work after it was done and put in the paperwork at the next medical. In my case I was told to wait 2 weeks to make sure that they eye was stable, got a new glasses prescription, and by the time my new glasses showed up my wait time was pretty much up anyway.

You will need to submit an FAA form 8500-7 (eye exam), completed by your Optometrist. Also a letter from the treating Ophthalmologist with the usual "good results", "no complications" wording, along with the details of the implant used. Do not let the Optometrist make a mountain out of the 8500-7 -- when in doubt, take the easiest approach to filling in the squares.

I worked with AMAS for the right eye and Harvey Watt for the left eye. I much prefer AMAS. Sorry if I stepped on any toes there, just reporting on my experience.

Serious complications are possible, but rare. A common minor complication is clouding a few years down the road, which is fixed with a Yag Capuslotomy. I had this in one eye; no problem getting it done and no problems with the FAA.

All in all not a big deal. And for what it is worth, my end result is an uncorrected distance vision of 20/15 in each eye, near vision that can be corrected with a set of drug store +1.75 readers and a normal medical with the standard middle aged "Must posses....for near vision". But because intermediate vision matters in this business, I do wear a set of progressive glasses.