You must go through 美国机构,which provides document for 中国机构 to evaluate. If you are an American citizen, you may not bypass 美国机构 and contact the Chinese side/child directly. Please note, of the 4-5w the adpoting family incurs, a lot of them goes to travel/visit, the Chinese side (mainly 福利院,孤儿院) gets 1-1.5w. If you are a Chinese citizen, it's totally different, even if you live in US . Of course you can still go through the channel for American citizen.