The outcome would have been the same if the author was an engineer as well. The point is that the immigration is tied to your employer and unnecessarily long/complicated and full of uncertainties (such as lottery).

For example, let us say you are from outside US and got an admission to Harvard for MBA. Now what you have to decide is whether it is fine for you to spend ~$200k in 2 yrs in education at Harvard and then potentially returning back to your country since if your name doesn't come in the H1 lottery - that is what you have to do. There is no 2nd chance. These kind of decisions is what is keeping out a number of bright ppl from coming to US and look elsewhere for opportunities.

I'd say sponsoring for a green card is usually not a good move for an employer, as the employee will have more freedom to change jobs once he gets the green card. Also it's a very long and costly process.

They'd have to really want to keep the employee, and to have exhausted all other visa options.

I know that some employers treat green card sponsorship similar to a bonus: if you leave before z years after getting the green card, you owe them $x0,000.

Pretty sure that's illegal.

I sincerely doubt it, since the companies I've heard of that do it are large multinationals. As I point out below, it's much the same as a signing bonus or moving expenses.

this sounds like indentured servitude, and i suspect there are laws against this.

They could just pay you less and say that you will get so much in bonus after working there for z years.

I assume it's in the same category as having to pay back an actual signing bonus, or moving expenses, if you don't stay with the company for z years.