Intercountry adoption finalized in a foreign country.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide details about how the bill affects existing cases or specifies what happens if an adoptee cannot prove their identity.

Intercountry Adoption Finalized in Foreign Countries

This law allows adoptees to file their own adoption petitions if both the parents and agencies did not, and it lets courts approve these petitions even without full documentation under certain conditions.

What This Bill Does

• Allows adoptees of any age to file a petition for readoption on their own if both the adoptive parent(s) and the agency that helped with the adoption did not do so.
• Permits courts to grant a readoption petition even without full documentation if the petitioner can prove they are the adoptee, show why some documents cannot be obtained, and provide enough evidence for the court to make necessary findings.
• Expands the types of evidence allowed in court to include testimony, declarations, records, correspondence, and other information that helps confirm the facts.

Who It Names or Affects

• Adoptees who were adopted from another country
• Courts handling intercountry adoption cases

Terms To Know

readoption

The process of filing a new petition to establish an official record for an adopted child in the United States after an initial foreign adoption.

preponderance of evidence

A standard used by courts where one side must show that its claims are more likely true than not.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if the adoptee cannot prove their identity or provide necessary documents.
• It is unclear how this will affect existing cases where parents and agencies did not file petitions on time.

Official Summary Text

SB 927, as amended, Choi.
Intercountry adoption finalized in a foreign country.
In order to establish a record by which an adoptee can prove the facts of a foreign adoption, existing law requires a state resident who has finalized an intercountry adoption in a foreign country to file a petition to readopt within the earlier of 60 days of the adoptee’s entry into the United States or the adoptee’s 16th birthday. If the adoptive parent fails to file the petition within the prescribed timeframe or to provide a copy of the petition to each adoption agency that provided adoption services to the adoptive parent, existing law requires the adoption agency that facilitated the adoption to file the petition within 90 days of the child’s entry into the United States and to provide a file-marked copy of the petition to the adoptive parent and any other adoption agency that provided services to the adoptive parent, as specified. Existing law requires the petition to include,
among other things, a report from at least one postplacement home visit by an intercountry adoption agency or a contractor of that agency licensed to provide intercountry adoption services in the state. Existing law requires the clerk of the court to submit an order granting the petition to the State Registrar, as specified, and requires the State Registrar to issue a delayed registration of birth upon receipt of the order.
This bill would authorize an adoptee of any age to file a petition on their own behalf if both the adoptive parent or parents and the adoption agency that facilitated the adoption failed to file a petition to readopt pursuant to the above-described provisions.
The bill would, notwithstanding the documentation requirements described above, authorize a court to grant a petition for readoption that does not include those documents if (1) the
petitioner establishes, by a preponderance of the evidence, that they are the adoptee, (2) the petitioner proves, by a preponderance of the evidence, that one or more of the required documents cannot be obtained due to the passage of time or other circumstances beyond the petitioner’s control, and (3) the petitioner is able to establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, the fundamental facts necessary for the court to make the findings required to grant the petition. The bill would authorize evidence presented to the court for these purposes to include both documentary and nondocumentary evidence, including, among other things, testimony, declarations, court records, agency records, correspondence, and other corroborating sources of information the court deems sufficient.
Existing law requires the court to notify
all appropriate authorities if it finds that the child may be a subject of human trafficking or may be within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court as a dependent child, as specified.
This bill would also expand the notice requirements described above to include any adoptee who may be, or may have been, a subject of human trafficking.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF