The impact of Super Visa on Chinese immigrant families' settlement in Canada

In November 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced a new Super Visa program as a successful alternative for family reunification. Scholars have criticized that Super Visa just adds more barriers to family reunification. Through qualitative interviews with immigrants who have sponsored their parents as well as parents who have come to Canada on Super Visa, this study aims to better understand the experiences of immigrant families, and make their voices heard. The key findings of this study indicate that Super Visa is helpful for family reunification especially for those whose regular visa applications are not successful. However, due to its limitations, Super Visa cannot replace the immigration sponsoring program for parents/grandparents. Some recommendations such as requesting fewer documents and information from parents and making the application easier for them, more flexible and affordable options for purchasing private medical insurance are made in order to improve the program to better serve immigrant families. Keywords: Canadian immigration policy, Super Visa program, parents/grandparents immigration, family reunification, experience of parent(s) with Super Visa, qualitative semi-structured interviews