Yesterday, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 927, authored by Senator Steven Choi, Ph.D. (R-Irvine), to help intercountry adoptees obtain official recognition of adoptions that were never properly registered in California.
SB 927 allows an intercountry adoptee to petition a California court on their own behalf when both their adoptive parents and the adoption agency failed to complete the state’s readoption process. Once a petition is approved, the adoptee may obtain a delayed registration of birth from the State Registrar.
“SB 927 is about fairness, dignity, and correcting a failure that was never the adoptee’s fault,” said Senator Choi. “Individuals who were welcomed into American families and raised in our communities should not be denied critical documentation simply because an adoptive parent or adoption agency failed to complete the necessary paperwork decades ago. I thank Governor Newsom for signing this compassionate and practical measure into law.”
The new law also recognizes that adoptees seeking relief years later may no longer have access to every document normally required for a readoption petition. Courts will be permitted to consider testimony, declarations, court and agency records, correspondence and other reliable evidence when documents cannot be obtained because of the passage of time or circumstances beyond the adoptee’s control.
In 2019, then-Assemblymember Choi authored Assembly Bill 677, which required adoptive parents or adoption agencies to complete the readoption process before an adoptee turned 16. However, that law did not provide a remedy for adults whose adoptions had already fallen through the cracks. SB 927 closes that gap.
The measure received unanimous bipartisan approval in both houses of the Legislature, passing the Assembly 70-0 and receiving final Senate approval on a 35-0 vote.
“California cannot change federal citizenship law, but we can ensure adoptees have a fair opportunity to an official record of their adoption,” Senator Choi added. “With the signing of SB 927, adoptees who have lived for years in legal uncertainty finally have a path forward.”