The validity of your US passport has been becoming an increasing menace for frequent travelers. This has been hampering travelers who visit foreign lands and that too quite frequently. This has serious relation to the fact that there are many people who are careless enough not to check the validity of their US passports before leaving their country. Remember, this would fetch you into serious consequences once your passport is out of date during the foreign tour. As per the rules you would not be allowed to board the aeroplane if your passport is out of date and has lost its validity as the US citizens require a valid passport to either exit or enter their own country.
Once you are stuck up in such an issue, you would have to apply for an US passport in the US embassy of the country you are currently in. there are no other option left apart from waiting for the proceedings to get completed and only then can you board the aircraft which is destined towards your own country. Further, you need to take an online appointment if you are to apply for a passport. The time required to get all the proceedings done would depend on the country or even the state you are stuck up at. Like the US agency of Kingston usually takes 7-10 business days to get things sorted out. The US embassy of Montego Bay, on the contrary, takes a lot more time. It takes 3-4 weeks after all the required documents are presented.
There are quite a few other aspects to look after along with quite a few extra documentations if the person whose validity of passport has expired during a tour is less than 16 years old. Primarily, the evidence of US citizenship of the applicant needs to be presented according to the prescribed online proforma. This is an absolute necessity in order to even start up with the proceedings. Then if the parents of the applicant are still in the US they would have to send the notarized DS-3053 consent forms, a copy of either their driving license or for that matter their passports. Then the notarized DS-3053 forms must name the person accompanying the applicant as the authorized person to apply for the passport of the child. These documents must be accompanied with the old US passport of the applicant along with the presence of both the applicant as well as the authorized person in order to get things done.
So check everything very carefully before commencing your tour abroad as you might find yourself in quite a lot of problems as stated above if you are careless.