眼前(yǎn qián) - before one's eyes, at present in Mandarin

眼前 (yǎnqián) is the patch of world directly in front of your eyes. 大海就在眼前 puts the sea right there, close enough to feel, and the word carries a small charge of immediacy that 前面 does not.

From that it slides naturally into time. 眼前的问题 are the problems in front of you now, as opposed to the ones coming later, and 眼前 alone can mean at this moment. English does the same trick with "the task before us", so the metaphor should feel familiar even if the word does not.

The trap is 面前 (miànqián), which looks like a synonym and is not quite one. 面前 is neutral spatial position, in front of a person or object, and it takes a possessor happily: 在老师面前 means in front of the teacher. 眼前 leans towards what you are actually looking at and towards the present moment; 在老师眼前 sounds odd. And for a formal "at present" in writing, the word you want is 目前 (mùqián), not 眼前.