As of my knowledge, among all the people that I know here in the U.S. who're on F1 visa have never been in trouble for working over 20 hrs. Some are even working over 40 hrs. The main reason why the U.S. govt doesn't want to allow us to work over 20 hrs is to prevent us from lowering our G.P.A.'s ( unintentionall that is ) so that education ( for which we're granted the Visa ) remains our primary goal. I've heard that there are tons of people who're working without a legal working permits too. Like in Minnesota where I have some friends who've told me that most of the Nepalese don't even know about Work Authorization Cards as they're hired just by giving their SSN. I did the same thing for a year. ( worked off campus starting with the summer ) then applied for an employment authorization card. It can be renewed every year but I came across a couple of other Nepalese ( in my college ) who got rejected... ( the renewal that is ) for some silly reasons. Maoist problem isn't a suitable reason anymore....but you can always use dirty tricks such as resurrecting your dead relatives and writing a script about their serious illnesses and so on.... ( some've been asked to provide proofs such as hospital bills and so on ) which they've successfully provided thanks to (50 nrs. wala nakkali hospital's stamp ) .