The only part of this section that is mandated by the 14th Amendment is the part giving citizenship to anyone born in the US and subject to its jurisdiction. The Supreme Court, in Rogers v. Bellei, held that the citizenship status of a person born outside the US to an American parent is not constitutionally protected.
Note that children born in the US to tourists -- or even to illegal aliens -- are US citizens by birth. Some politicians have proposed changing the law to deny citizenship to US-born children unless at least one parent is a US citizen or permanent resident alien ("green card" holder). However, since such children are guaranteed citizenship by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution (see the Supreme Court's rulings in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark and Afroyim v. Rusk), it is unlikely that this part of the INA could be successfully changed without another amendment to the Constitution. Even attempts to deny citizenship to such children by redefining them as not being subject to US jurisdiction (as proposed, for instance, by various bills in the current Congress) would probably have a rough time in the courts on account of the Wong Kim Ark precedent.
Under certain conditions, children born outside the US may have US citizenship by birth. This depends on whether one or both parents have US citizenship, how long (if at all) the American parent(s) lived in the US prior to the child's birth, and whether the parents were married to each other or not. The rules have changed several times during the 20th century (mostly in a more liberal direction), so the exact date of one's birth can also be important when determining a claim to citizenship by descent.
Under the current law, if both parents are US citizens and are married, then the child is a US citizen if either parent had a "residence" in the US at any time in his or her life prior to the child's birth. There is no specific minimum period of time in the law for how long a parent must have been in the US in order for his/her status to be accepted as having been "residence" in the US.
If one parent is a US citizen, and the other is not, and the parents are married, then the current law says the child is a US citizen if the American parent was physically present in the US for one or more periods of time totalling at least five years, at some time or times in his or her life prior to (but not necessarily immediately prior to) the child's birth. Additionally, at least two years out the required five years of physical presence must have taken place after the parent's 14th birthday; thus, for example, a parent who was born and grew up in the US, but who left before reaching age 16 and never returned, doesn't meet the requirement.
Prior to 14 November 1986, the physical presence requirement in this case was ten years (instead of five) -- including five years (instead of two) spent after the parent's 14th birthday. The requirement was reduced in 1986, but the change did not retroactively make US citizenship available to people born previously who did not meet the old requirement. (Congress's intent not to make this change retroactive was affirmed in 1988 with the passage of Public Law 100-525, § 8(d), 102 Stat. 2619).
Note that physical presence does not require residence in the US. Time spent on vacation in the US may be counted toward the five-year total. Indeed, Americans living abroad with foreign-born children would be well advised to keep track of the exact dates of each trip the children make to the US, in case the question of a grandchild's US citizenship should arise sometime in the future. After we moved back to the US from Canada, I wrote up an affidavit detailing all the times each of my two children had been in the US; I signed it under oath before a notary, sealed it in an envelope, and have filed it with our important documents for possible future use. I plan to redo each child's affidavit after his/her 16th birthday.
If a non-US-born child's parents are not married, the child's claim to US citizenship depends on whether the American parent is the mother or the father. Section 309 of the INA [8 USC § 1409] grants US citizenship at birth to an "illegitimate" child if his/her American mother had previously spent at least one continuous full year in the US. If the child's American parent is his/her father, however, the child has US citizenship at birth only if the father's paternity is formally established and the father agrees in writing to support the child financially. This sex-based disparity was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2001 (Nguyen v. INS).
It is important to note that a foreign-born child whose parents have fulfilled the residency or physical presence requirements is a US citizen by birth. This citizenship is automatic; it is not dependent on the parents' registering the child with a US consulate (though such registration is strongly encouraged) or getting the child a US passport. ↓
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