CA Re-adoption Process for adoptive child from China

Your best bet is to consult an attorney, even though it may mean another expense. We readopted our daughter last year (we were living in Virginia at the time) and having someone walk us through the best sequence of steps was so helpful. We adopted from Korea and some of our friends we met in seoul who lived in other states, including California, talked about spending fruitless hours on the phone with the social security office and getting nowhere. (South Korea would put the Korean name and not the American name on the CoC, which meant we had to do a formal name change too). Every state has different requirements so we opted to save our time and sanity and ask a professional. It was so worth it. Good luck!  

I suggest that you contact an international adoption agency.  They might be able to help you.

There used to be a yahoo group called something like CA-Readopt.  They had a useful write up on how to do it.  Also, you might try searching on Facebook to see if there is a group that does that.  Or maybe join a FCC (family with children from China) group and ask there.  We did, as you say, a long time ago , and it was fine by ourselves in Alameda County.

In 2011, I readopted a child born overseas by using the steps from the 2005 answer from the BPN forum and did not use a lawyer. It was quite easy.  I submitted copies of the foreign adoption documentation (with English translation) as supporting documents.  I may have included copies of the initial & post adoption homestudies. 

The forms I filed were: Adopt-200, 210, 215, 230 & VS 44.

The process did not take long, even though I made an extra trip to the court due to an error on my part. I don't recall the fee, but it was minimal.

As someone mentionned in 2008 or before, you can find adoption  info on the court's website.

On another note, even if your child becomes a citizen on the day of the CA adoption, I strongly suggest that you get proof of it by filling out US citizenship paper ( www.state.gov) & once done, obtain a US passport or passport card. It's costly to do so, but your child will have proof of citizenship. One never knows when laws will change.