US Passport Renewal WHILE Oversease

I got a new passport in Algiers. It cost about $70 - the regular passport fee, plus a expedited shipping fee to get the passport from wherever it was made to where I was. It took about five days from the time I applied to the time that I could pick it up.

Be sure and get instructions from the consulate about the photo that you'll need - the photo has to be a specific size and your head has to be a specific size and the background color has to be a specific color. The consulate gave me precise instructions in English and French and recommended a photo studio that would do it.

I think there is a certain schedule for this kind of service, so check on that too.

Yes.

Cannot stress enough what menejike says about photo specifications. I also got the instructions to take to the photographer and photo was sent back from consulate twice for not being exactly to specifications.

Yes but unlike #1, I did not have to pay an expedite fee but only a tiny courier fee ($3.50 here in Chile) to have the passport delivered direct to my door as they (American Citizen Services) for some reason did not want me to pick it up at the embassy.

The OP mentions: "your US passport that has expired while you were overseas?"

Don't do that. Typically no country will allow you entry beyond the expiration date of your passport and many want six months left on it before issuing things like tourist visas.

So, good chance that you will also be in violation of local immigration law if your passport expires while you are in a country not your own.

Sort out your renewal long before it expires.

Like #4, the US Embassy in Korea had my new passport sent to me via courier for about US$10. Saved me a long day's trip to go pick it up.

Yes, in China (US Embassy Beijing). I got a new passport about 4 months before the existing one expired, took about a week to get it (along with return of the cancelled old one). I did in-person drop-off and pickup as I live nearby. As poster above says, DON'T LET YOUR PASSPORT EXPIRE! One important thing: if you are applying from inside a country where you need a valid visa, find out if you will be able to use the non-expired visa in the old passport along with the new passport (this is the case in China, you just cross borders with both of the documents together). Or, see if you will have to get a new visa in your new passport. Even if your current country does not require a visa, you probably have some sort of entry stamp in the old passport, which immigration may want to see when they stamp you out in your new passport. So keep that existing passport safe and accessible!