Right. That's a common route for those who didn't attend a US university and didn't win the lottery. If you went to a US university, you would have started wor

Right. That's a common route for those who didn't attend a US university and didn't win the lottery. If you went to a US university, you would have started working on your F1 OPT. You now have 3 years to win the lottery. If that were to fail (EDIT: you are an essential employee and you happen to work for one of the large tech companies) you'd likely be moved to a foreign office of that company for a year, then transferred back in on a L-1 visa.