What is the standard eyelid surgery recovery time?

Most patients only need to take 7 days off work. Your stitches will be removed 4 days after your procedure. This will significantly speed up the recovery time. Swelling and bruising you may have will be virtually gone by day 10. However, I do recommend my patients to stay away from direct sunlight and wear sunglasses for several weeks when they are working outdoors. Best of luck to you.

Any surgery including upper eyelid surgery has a recovery phase that goes through swelling. I think 2 weeks off is more than what standard patients do. Most of my patients, if taking any time off for eyelid surgery, take one week off. and by second week most of them look presentable.

I would say for the vast majority of patients, the bulk of the bruising and swelling goes away within 2 weeks and therefore it would be rare that I would recommend a patient take more than 2 weeks off work. If you have a desk job, you probably would be able to back in 5-7 days with the understanding that you would still have some bruising and swelling but that could probably manage to cover up with a little concealer. If your job requires heavy lifting (police officer, firefighter, nurse, etc.), then I would recommend taking a full 2 weeks off work.
Now that being said, some patients heal more slowly than this and some much quicker. If you are over the age of 65, are a diabetic, smoker, have hypothyroid or take medications that slow your metabolism, it may take longer for you to heal, so plan for it. This is just for the bulk of the bruising and swelling.
In terms of incision lines, sensation of your eyelids to touch and overall final results, I would say wait 3-6 months at least. The reason is that scars continue to mature, sensation of the skin to fine touch and overall healing continue up to a year after surgery. After one year, most people are probably as healed as they are going to be. Which always brings up the next question, what can I do if I'm not happy with my eyelid surgery? The short answer is wait at least 6-12 months before seeing a second opinion. As an oculoplastic surgeon I do a lot of revisional surgery from patients who have had surgery elsewhere. I would say more patients do get better with time, but if you are entirely happy wait at least 6 months before considering a second operation