Ideally, you should wait to file until you have this in your records. But, since your husband was diagnosed with the progressive disease of macular degeneration in 2015, he should easily be able to receive the certified statement from an eye doctor. You can file with a higher standard deduction for the condition of being blind but get a certified statement as soon as you can.
From IRS Publication 551:
If you aren't totally blind, you must get a certified statement from an eye doctor (ophthalmologist or optometrist) stating that
1. You can't see better than 20/200 in the better eye with glasses or contact lenses, or
2. Your field of vision is 20 degrees or less.
If your eye condition isn't likely to improve beyond these limits, the statement should include this fact.
Keep the statement in your records. If your vision can be corrected beyond these limits only by contact lenses that you can wear only briefly because of pain, infection, or ulcers, you can take the higher standard deduction for blindness if you otherwise qualify
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