California Registration of Birth or Readoption

i'm not going to be too helpful bc we actually did the readopt. all we needed in addition to our guat side paperwork was a post placement report. we filed for readoption ourselves....i think it was like 20 bucks. it was painless, and then the "delayed registration of foreign birth) (what we get instead of a bc) came automatically after that and had been included in the original 20 dollar fee. we actually chose readopt bc otherwise it would have been $400 for a name change, and then $12 for a bc, this way we got both, for 20 bucks. :)that's kinda funny no one knew what you were talking about.....i found that to be true of alot of things i tried to do for eli's adoption. lol. the readopt was actually the easiest thing we did. they told dh what paperwork he needed, handed him a packet, and told him to return it filled out with the paperwork it asked for and 20 bucks. we had a court date almost immediately.anyway.....CA is like that....no one knows what their job is. :arrow:. good luck in finding the answers. :) hopefully someone here has btdt. :)

Thanks for the info :thanks: ....so, what was the time frame of turning in paperwork to the court date? :arrow: :arrow:

I can't help as we readopted as well. But I can verify that it really was only $20 and super easy. We actually paid our social worker $100 and she did all of the paperwork and got our appointment and all we had to do was show up about a month later and sign papers. = ) Yep, we were that lazy. :eyebrows:

a few weeks....but it will vary by county.

you can get the packet at your county court house, but here is also a link to the forms you will need:[URL="http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/forms.cgi"]California Courts: Forms[/URL]choose "adoption" in the drop down menu.you will need 050, 200, 215, and 230they are easy to fill out, i promise. you will also need copies of the guat side adoption decree and new guat bc with you listed as parents, as well as a copy of a post placement report. i don't know how current they have to be bc we did this about 6 months after eli was home. the last thing you will need will be a cover letter to the court for the packet of info you will turn in for each child. i can't find a sample online, but i know we were able to get a sample from the courthouse when we asked for one...it was not in our adoption packet we picked up....we had to ask specifically for this. gather everything in bundles, slap a cover sheet on each one in the format provided, have 20 dollars for each case you want to file, and walk in. they will either give you a court date right then, or they will say they need to give the paperwork to the judge for approval first and you will hear back SHORTLY about anything else he needs, or when your date will be. it really is painless.

We readopted all our children. Is there a reason you do not want to? I do understand California recognizes the adoption as final. In order to do a readopt in California you have to have one post placement. You can file to readopt on your own. Thiw will also take care of any name change you did for your child. Anna

It's not that we don't want to readopt, but the way it reads (the laws at this time in CA) state that you can get a California birth certificate with out readopting. I have spent most of the day researching this though and it seems the easiest way to get a CA birth certificate is readoption. I can get a CA birth certificate with out it, but then would still have to do a legal name change. So, might as well do it all at once with the readoption. Thanks everyone for your help!

In NC we didn't re-adopt. I went to the county for a name change, then to the state Dept. of Vital Statistics for a Certificate of Foreign Birth.

Thanks for your response! I am curious - what does a Certificate of Foreign Birth say. Does it work for U.S. Citizenship?

Michigan issues a Delayed Registration of Foreign Birth which looks like a Michigan birth certificate but shows that they were born in Guatemala. From MommytoEli's post it sounds like the same thing that CA issues. Because Michigan does not have any way to readopt, we did the same as Daphne and went through the county court to do legal name changes and then through Vital Records for the Delayed Registration of Foreign Birth. From everything I have read about different states here, I don't think any state issues a BC for an internationally adopted child that can be used to show citizenship.

no it does not. i think it even might say that (i'll go pull it out and see).....and it lists guatemala as the birth place....just on california paper. lol. if i need to prove citizenship, i will still need eli's passport or coc. it doesn't matter how you obtain a bc in california, you WILL get a "delayed registration of foreign birth," and it will not prove citizenship. trust me....if you are also doing name changes, the quickest cheapest route is readoption.

ok...it was just a note i had with it....but it does saystate of california"court order delayed registration of birth"birthfacts, including city and country born in guatemalafather info (dh)my info (me)abstract of supporting documents (lists court order from readopt and date of readopt)lists original bc info with us listed as parentscourt reg # again, date of readopt again, "establishing record the fact of birth in the state of (state of crossed out) country of guatemala.all of this on the CA bc paper. so it doesn't SAY can' be used as citizenship...but it is pretty obvious since it says GUATEMALA like 5 times. lol.

Got it - OK :) I am completing the readoption forms as I type. :cool:

I am totally not arguing with you :grouphug: but, wouldn't a child officially adopted (as shown on a CA delayed registration of birth) by two U.S. Citizens be a citizen? Even if the child was born on foreign land - that child would be a U.S. Citizen if "born" to U.S. Parents. Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmm LOL Very curious! :gnome:

I know this is an old thread but still is an issue! I already have a COC and a SS card for my Haitian daughter (I know this is not the Carib forum but no one has responded over there), which show the spelling of her name that matches all the Haitian paperwork. I'm not sure how doing a readoption helps us with name change issues on the existing US documents. If we readopt and I change her name on that paperwork don't we still have to get a new COC and SS card issued? I assume it's dangerous in this administration for her to have a COC in one name spelling and a BC in a different spelling. (All I did was remove one U from her first name). It sounds like the delayed registration of birth is faster and requires less paperwork but is the end result certificate EXACTLY THE SAME as having the cert you get from readopting? What I really want is for her to be able to get her driver's license in March in the spelling of her name that she uses daily, but since all her legal paperwork has it with the original spelling, I'm not sure that will work. She gets her learner's permit next week and that will surely have to be in the original spelling since we will have to show them her Haitian paperwork to get the permit.