^^True that you are basically a slave to the company. Whether they treat you well or not, if you want to stay in the US you have to seek another employer who will help do all the paperwork, or you are stuck having to stay with the current employer. If they lay you off, you’re out of the country, unless you overstay your visa or get married really fast, or find another company that can sponsor you.
My husband was here on a student visa when I met him. He took a job with a company that said they would sign the paperwork to do a visa. He had two months left on his current visa when his company informed him they won’t do H1 anymore. He had to quit and go job hunting. We had been only dating around three months at the time. We were in our early 20’s. He would have left, he would not have stayed here illegally or married under false pretense. He got really lucky and found a great job. Way better than where he had been working.
I used to say the same about healthcare. Want to stay insured? If you had a preexisting health problem you were a slave to your current job. Even now, health care is so expensive it still enslaved us to some point. I know a ton of people who work primarily for the healthcare insurance.
I’m very glad my husband had the H1 visa option though. I don’t know if he took a job from an American, I think that’s debatable. Most jobs he has had were often done by expats from other countries, or Americans who were immigrants to this country. Also, in the multinational companies he has worked for, very often Americans worked in other countries. Some of their people were here, but some of our people were there.