A clinic can only quote what it can see. When an inquiry arrives as "how much is LASIK, I'm coming in November," the coordinator has to write back asking for your prescription, then wait, then ask about your contacts, then wait again. Each round trip costs two or three days across time zones. Send the packet below in your first message and the reply you get is a price range, an exam date and a surgery date.
The five things
1. Your current prescription, with the numbers
Sphere, cylinder and axis for each eye. That is the line on your glasses prescription that looks like OD -3.25 -0.75 x 180. If you wear contacts, the box end has base curve and power, which is also useful but not a substitute for the glasses numbers. A photo of the paper is fine. What does not work: "I'm about a minus four," or a photo of your glasses.
The numbers decide three things at once: whether you are likely a candidate, which procedure the surgeon will lean toward (standard LASIK, femtosecond LASIK, PRK, or a lens procedure), and which price tier applies. High cylinder or a prescription above roughly minus eight tends to move you toward a different conversation, and the clinic would rather have it now than after you have booked flights.
2. Your age and how long the prescription has been stable
Surgeons want a prescription that has not moved meaningfully for about a year, sometimes two. If your last two exams were a year apart and within a quarter diopter of each other, say so. If you are under 21, expect the clinic to ask more questions. If you are over 45, the clinic will bring up reading vision and possibly suggest a lens-based option, so mention whether you already use readers.
3. Contact lens type and how many years you have worn them
Soft daily, soft monthly, toric, rigid gas permeable, or ortho-k. This matters because you will need to stop wearing them before the pre-op exam, and the cut-off window depends on the type. Rigid lenses can require a month or more out, which changes when you can fly. The clinic will build your dates around this. See the contact lens cut-off guide for the windows.
4. Your travel window and preferred city
Give a range, not a single day: "any time between 3 and 20 November, Medellín preferred, Bogotá acceptable." A range lets the coordinator find an exam slot and a surgery slot that sit two days apart inside your trip. A single date forces them to say no or to squeeze you in on a day the surgeon would not have chosen. Also say how many days you can be away in total; eight is comfortable, six is possible, four is not.
5. Anything on the medical short list
You do not need to send a medical history. You do need to mention these if they apply, because any one of them changes the plan:
- Dry eye you treat with drops or plugs, or symptoms you have not treated
- Autoimmune conditions (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's) or medication that suppresses immunity
- Diabetes, and whether it is well controlled
- Keratoconus in you or a close relative
- Pregnancy, breastfeeding, or plans to be pregnant in the next six months
- Previous eye surgery of any kind, including a prior LASIK or PRK elsewhere
- Isotretinoin (Accutane) or GLP-1 medications, both of which affect the ocular surface
None of these is an automatic no. All of them are things the surgeon wants to plan around rather than discover on exam day.
What the clinic can do with each level of detail
| What you sent | What you get back |
|---|---|
| "How much is LASIK?" | A generic starting-from price and a request for your prescription. Two to three days lost. |
| Prescription only | A price range for the likely procedure, and questions about contacts, dates and city. |
| Prescription + contacts + dates | A provisional quote for the likely procedure, a stop-contacts date, and one or two candidate exam/surgery pairings. |
| All five items | A provisional quote naming the procedure, held exam and surgery slots, a deposit request, and the trip dates you can book flights around. |
The one-paragraph version. "I'm 34, OD -3.50 -0.75 x 175 / OS -3.25 -0.50 x 010, stable for three years, soft monthly contacts for twelve years, no dry eye or health conditions, available 3–20 November for up to eight days, Medellín preferred. Please quote femto and standard LASIK and propose exam/surgery dates." That message gets answered properly.
What you do not need to send yet
Passport copy, flight details, hotel confirmation, payment details, and a full medical history all come after the quote, usually with the deposit. Clinics do not want personal documents floating around before there is a booking, and neither should you.
What "provisional" means on the quote
Every LASIK quote issued before the diagnostic exam is provisional. The exam measures corneal thickness, topography, pupil size and tear film, and any of those can move you from LASIK to PRK or from a standard platform to a femtosecond one. A good quote says which procedure it assumes, what the alternative would cost, and what happens to your deposit if you are not a candidate. If your quote does not say those three things, ask before paying anything. How to read a Colombian LASIK quote walks through the line items.
Quick answers
Do I need a full eye exam before I contact a clinic?
No. A recent glasses or contact lens prescription is enough for a provisional quote. The full diagnostic exam happens at the clinic in Colombia, usually the day before surgery.
What if my prescription is more than two years old?
Send it anyway and say so. The clinic will quote from it and flag that the final price and eligibility depend on the exam. If it is easy, get a fresh refraction from any optometrist first; it costs little and tightens the quote.
Can I send photos of my glasses instead?
Photos of the lenses do not carry the numbers. Send a photo of the prescription paper, the box end of your contact lenses, or the printout from your last exam.
Ready to lock a date?
Send your prescription, travel window and city preference. You get an exam slot, a surgery slot and an itemised quote back, not a sales call.
Get a date