A new book by a local author highlights how lucky Bermudians are not to need a visa to go to the United States.

Trinidadian Deryck Raymond released 'The Visa' in August, about a young couple's life as foreign students as they pursue college degrees in the US.

One of the first memorable experiences foreign college students have as students is just getting the right paperwork to go to the US.

"You don't need a visa as a Bermudian, so a lot of Bermudians don't understand what other people go through to get the visa," Mr. Raymond said.

But he said in Trinidad a visa to go to the United States is not an easy thing to come by.

"For a lot of other countries it is the same," he said. "There are visa restrictions in place."

He said typically visa restrictions are in place because of infractions.

"In the past we didn't need a visa to go to Canada," said Mr. Raymond. "But we had so many people going up to Canada and trying to stay illegally that eventually they put the visa in place, so now we do need a visa. Also, sometimes visas are required for health concerns."

He said first of all, as a Trinidadian he had to prove his ability to pay his own way in the United States.

"The drama is really in the actual application," said Mr. Raymond. "When I first applied for a student visa to go to the United States, they were granted on a first come first serve basis.

"So you had to show up in the middle of the night and camp outside the embassy to ensure you could get into the embassy to be interviewed."

He said the interview process was actually quite short.

"There would be two types of visas, one is a student visa and one is a visitor visa," said Mr. Raymond.

"For visitors you have to show you have a good job and sufficient funds in the bank.

"They want to make sure you don't seek a better life in America illegally. As a student you have to ensure that you have the funds and have been accepted to the school. "

Mr. Raymond is married to Bermudian school teacher Kim Bailey Raymond and works at Rubis Energy Bermuda.

"My book covers certain themes including the immigration issue," said Mr. Raymond. "I also look at the college experience and also my relationship with Kim."

The two met while Mr. Raymond was getting a bachelors degree from North Carolina A&T University in manufacturing systems technology.

Later the couple went on to get masters degrees at Purdue University, Indiana.

He decided to write the book to share some of his experiences with other students and their parents.

"I felt we had gone through so much while we were in the United States that I needed to express it," he said.

However, Mr. Raymond said everyone's experiences are individual. "Some people who read the book said they didn't experience the same things," he said. "Our experiences were both positive and negative."

He said his book mostly looks at the positives of studying in the United States.

Mr. Raymond was 31-years-old when he started studying for his bachelors degree, which made him a little more mature than the average freshman college student.

"When we were undergraduates we had a lot of friends who were West Indian or Trinidadian and they liked to party.

"It took all my savings to get there, so I couldn't waste that partying. I had to be more focused than the typical student. I couldn't waste the opportunity."

He and his wife married after one year of dating and have been married now for nine years.

Mr. Raymond said he didn't have too much culture-shock when he first moved to the United States, because Trinidad is so Americanised.

"In fact, some people didn't believe that I had just arrived, because I seemed so American," he said.

"One difference I did notice was that in the United States lifestyles are very segregated. In Trinidad, people do more or less the same thing, regardless of race.

"In America, blacks do certain things and whites do certain things and it is very segregated."

He and his wife also noticed a shift in feeling towards foreigners after September 11, 2001.

"We started our undergraduate degrees in 1998," he said. "We had just started graduate school when 9/11 happened.

"I wrote about that in the book as well. All of the sudden we felt apprehensive about how we were going to be treated as foreigners.

"We never really had anything bad happen to us, but we had to stop watching the news. Once we weren't hearing about it all the time, we were fine."

'The Visa' is currently available in Bermuda bookstores. It is also available through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

"I have three more books in the process right now," he said. "I have had a very good response to 'The Visa' so far.

"I can't say how I am doing in sales because the publisher hasn't been giving me any feedback."