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NEW RULES ON ACQUIRING CITIZENSHIP AT BIRTH BENEFITS MANY CANADIANS AND OTHERS
Historically, there have been two sets of conditions that must be met for a US citizen to transmit his or her citizenship to his or her children born outside the United States - conditions precedent and conditions subsequent. While changing periodically, these conditions have remained an intrinsic part of citizenship law. 
The condition precedent has always required that the transmitting parent physically reside in the US for a minimum number of years. The purpose of this requirement has been to prevent successive generations of "absentee" citizens who have no cultural ties to the United States. The number of years of physical presence has changed with each set of changes to the immigration laws. The most recent statutory amendment, which applies only to persons born onor after November 14, 1986, requires the transmitting parent to have physically resided in the US for 5 years, at least two of which were after the age of 14. 
The condition subsequent, which applies only to children born of one US citizen parent and one alien parent, has traditionally imposed a residence requirement on the foreign born child. The most recent version of this condition required children born abroad between May 24, 1934 and October 10, 1978 to be continuously physically present in the US for at least two years between the ages of 14 and 28. A child born between these dates that failed to comply lost their right to US citizenship. That result was recently determined by the US Congress to be discriminatory and inequitable. 
The Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994 (INTCA) made several changes in the naturalization and citizenship laws. One of the most important changes was to do away with the discriminatory physical presence requirement. INTCA provides that individuals who have lost their US citizenship by failing to meet the physical presence requirements in effect at the time of their birth may regain their citizenship by taking an oath of allegiance to the United States. This amendment does not, however, restore citizenship retroactively. Therefore, such individuals are unable to transmit citizenship to their own children born during the period between their loss of and restoration to US citizenship. Nevertheless, under current law, a parent who reacquires their citizenship could still petition for permanent residency for his or her child. 
The new law is seen to especially benefit Canadians. Some estimate that up to 20% of all Canadians have recent American ancestry.