Is there a non-employment permanent visa that I'm missing?

I'm here on a TN visa and my employer wants to keep me around permanently. I said that I'd only do that if they would go through the green card process, which of course is laborious, expensive and uncertain. Nonetheless, since my husband can't work with my TN status, we can't really live here for any length of time without a permanent visa. I understood that the green card was my only option for this. Nonetheless, my husband has met all sorts of fellow students at his college from other countries (Phillipines, New Zealand etc.) who say that all they did was 'hire a lawyer' and they got everything done in a year, can work here, etc. These are young guys, often just out of high school, with no post-secondary education, trade certificates, work experience etc. I also ran into a person from the UK who mentioned that she just 'hired a lawyer' to allow her to stay permanently in the US, a few years ago, but we didn't get the opportunity to elaborate on the process. Again, she is not a professional, no post-secondary etc. etc. Have I completely missed another alternative route to getting a permanent US visa as a Canadian? What are these lawyers doing for these people who are not refugees, not professionals, etc. that they are able to attain a permanent, working status while I cannot get the same for myself and certainly not my husband. Ideas?

Hmm, I think they might be talking about the diversity lottery. Obviously the ones who didn't get permanent residency you're not going to meet because they didn't get it. Canadians don't qualify for the DV lottery.

I came to the conclusion years ago the whole thing was fixed, because 99% of the people I meet who got into the US that way seemed to have a lawyer "who had connections". I used to meet loads of students too who got in that way, but like I said, you don't meet the ones who weren't, obviously. The one guy I knew who got a visa under the DV lottery without a lawyer told me also that he was positive the thing was fixed as well.

Canadians are heavily over-represented in the US population so it's never held here.