ABF Marine Tactical Officer Eyesight Standards: Can Laser Help?

Short answer: Use-of-force positions in the Australian Border Force (ABF) Marine Unit require uncorrected distance vision of 6/9 in your better eye and 6/12 in your weaker eye, which means without glasses or contact lenses. You also need 6/6 with both eyes (glasses allowed), N8 near vision (reading glasses allowed) and the ability to tell red from green (ABF). If you are short-sighted, glasses alone can’t get you through the uncorrected test. Laser eye surgery can improve your vision without glasses, and in a large review of modern LASIK, 99.5% of eyes saw better than 6/12 without glasses afterwards (Sandoval et al., 2016). The ABF page doesn’t mention previous eye surgery, so check with ABF recruitment before you book.

The ABF Marine Unit runs offshore patrols, and its entry-level Marine Tactical Officer Cadet program covers boarding operations, bridge and engine room watchkeeping, and deck work. Crews deploy for 22 to 29 days at a time with no chance to return to port (ABF). The vision standard reflects that: officers need to read documents and pressure gauges on safety equipment in all kinds of weather and light.

The ABF Marine Unit eyesight standards

These are the published standards for use-of-force positions within the Marine Unit, as at November 2026 (ABF):

Test	Standard	Glasses or contacts allowed?
Near vision	N8	Yes
Distance vision, both eyes together	6/6	Yes
Distance vision, better eye	6/9	No (uncorrected)
Distance vision, weaker eye	6/12	No (uncorrected)
Colour vision	Reliably tell red from green, for surface colours and coloured lights (Ishihara test first)	Not applicable

The separate page for non-use-of-force Marine Unit positions doesn’t list these vision figures, so check which category your role falls into. Standards can change: always confirm the current requirements with ABF recruitment.

What do 6/9 and 6/12 mean?

The first number is the testing distance, 6 metres. The second is the distance at which a person with standard vision could read the same line. So 6/9 means you read at 6 metres what a standard eye reads from 9 metres, and 6/12 means you read at 6 metres what a standard eye reads from 12 metres. Our guide to what 6/6 vision means explains the eye chart in more detail.

Many people who wear glasses for distance see worse than 6/12 without them. If you don’t know your uncorrected vision, an optometrist can measure it in a few minutes, and it is part of our free optometrist assessment.

The AMSA seafarer medical

Marine Unit applicants also need a certificate of medical fitness from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), because all seafarers in Australia must hold one (ABF).

AMSA’s standard for seafarers who do lookout or watchkeeping duties is 6/6 in the better eye, 6/9 in the other eye and 6/6 with both eyes, with glasses if necessary, plus N8 near vision for charts and weather maps and normal colour vision (AMSA). The AMSA standard doesn’t set any rule about previous laser eye surgery.

So the AMSA medical allows glasses, and the stricter uncorrected requirement comes from Border Force.

Can laser eye surgery help you meet the standard?

Laser eye surgery reshapes the cornea to correct short-sightedness, long-sightedness and astigmatism, so you see more clearly without glasses. The published results are relevant to the Marine Unit standard:

• A review of 97 studies of modern LASIK (67,893 eyes) found 99.5% of eyes saw better than 20/40 (6/12) without glasses, and 90.9% were within half a dioptre of the planned result (Sandoval et al., 2016).
• In a 2024 peer-reviewed series of 205 eyes treated with StreamLight TransPRK in Brisbane, 95.6% saw 20/20 (6/6) or better without glasses (Gunn & Cox, 2024). Our TransPRK results page explains the study.

These are averages across many eyes, and no surgeon can guarantee that you will meet a particular standard. Your result depends on your prescription and your eyes. If a small prescription remains once your eyes have settled, an enhancement is free for two years under our enhancement policy, when your surgeon judges it safe and worthwhile.

Which procedure suits a Marine Unit role?

All three laser options can correct most prescriptions. The differences that matter for a physical job at sea are the flap and the recovery time:

	LASIK	CLEAR (SMILE-type)	TransPRK
Flap in the cornea	Yes	No (small keyhole)	No
Back to desk work	Usually 1 to 2 days	A few days	About a week
Main advantage	Fastest visual recovery	No flap, quick recovery	No flap; suits thinner corneas
Price per eye	$4,250	$4,250	$3,500

• Flapless options. CLEAR and TransPRK don’t create a flap, which some people in physically demanding roles, such as boarding operations, prefer to discuss with their surgeon. PRK-type surgery is the usual choice for thinner corneas and for people who want to avoid a flap altogether (AAO).
• High prescriptions. If your prescription is too high or your corneas too thin for laser, an implantable contact lens may be considered.

Prices are all-inclusive except prescribed eye drops. See our laser eye surgery page for how the three compare, and our costs page for interest-free plans.

Why not just wear contact lenses at sea?

Contact lenses can’t help with the uncorrected standard, because that test is done without them. They are also harder to manage on a long deployment. Sleeping in contact lenses and poor lens case hygiene are known risk factors for a serious corneal infection (microbial keratitis), and the yearly rate of infection was around 20 to 25 per 10,000 people who wore soft lenses overnight (Stapleton et al., 2008). On a vessel that won’t return to port for weeks, getting eye care quickly isn’t easy.

Colour vision: laser can’t change it

The Marine Unit requires you to reliably tell red from green, starting with the Ishihara test (ABF). Laser eye surgery changes how the eye focuses light. It doesn’t change colour vision, so it won’t help with this part of the medical.

Over 40 and need reading glasses?

The near vision standard is N8 with or without glasses, so reading glasses are allowed (ABF). Most people need help with reading from about 45, whether or not they have had laser eye surgery (NEI).

If you are considering laser in your 40s, tell your surgeon about the uncorrected distance standard. Treatments that set one eye for reading, such as Laser Blended Vision, deliberately leave that eye slightly short-sighted, which could affect your uncorrected distance vision in that eye. Your surgeon will plan around the standard you need to meet.

Timing your surgery before you apply

1. Get your uncorrected vision measured so you know how far you are from 6/9 and 6/12.
2. Check with ABF recruitment how previous laser eye surgery is assessed, and whether there is a waiting period before the medical. The published standards page doesn’t say.
3. See a surgeon to find out whether you are suitable and which procedure fits your eyes and role.
4. Allow time to recover and for your vision to settle before your medical. Recovery takes from a couple of days for LASIK to about a week for TransPRK, and your vision keeps settling after that.
5. Take your surgery records to your medical, including your prescription before surgery and your vision afterwards.

For other jobs with vision standards, including pilots, the ADF and police, see laser eye surgery for pilots, defence and police.

References

1. Australian Border Force. Medical and Fitness Standards for Use of Force positions within the Marine Unit. Last updated 1 October 2026. abf.gov.au
2. Australian Border Force. Marine crew careers. abf.gov.au
3. Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Standards for the medical examination of seafarers and coastal pilots (AMSA182). amsa.gov.au
4. Sandoval HP, Donnenfeld ED, Kohnen T, et al. Modern laser in situ keratomileusis outcomes. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2016;42(8):1224-1234. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27531300
5. Gunn DJ, Cox RA. StreamLight single-step transepithelial photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) for myopia and myopic astigmatism. J Ophthalmol. 2024;2024:5597457. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39575318
6. American Academy of Ophthalmology. Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). EyeSmart. aao.org
7. Stapleton F, Keay L, Edwards K, et al. The incidence of contact lens-related microbial keratitis in Australia. Ophthalmology. 2008;115(10):1655-1662. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18538404
8. National Eye Institute. Presbyopia. nei.nih.gov

Start with a free optometrist assessment to check your uncorrected vision and whether laser eye surgery suits you. Every patient proceeding to surgery then has a paid consultation with a specialist surgeon to confirm suitability, discuss their procedure and plan surgery. The consultation fee is deducted from the surgery price. See consultation and pricing details.