The article mentions the phrase "when he didn't win the visa lottery...". Just to give people some context ... a few years ago, so many people applied for the H1 visa, that the visa quota finished on the very first day.
I know a student who went to school in Canada and had a good job offer from a large US software company, and was negatively impacted by this (while a Canadian software person can indeed work in the US on a TN visa, an Indian who went to the same school in Canada needs to be on an H1 in order to take that same job). The poor guy got hit thrice. The first time was just the year before the H1 oversubscription ... he didn't have his physical degree in his hands by the time the visa quota finished. The next two times, there was a lottery and he didn't make it :(
