Dear F1 friends in the USA

I have an F1 visa and will be graduating in June 2009. Since I was awarded full scholarship by my school I make an agreement with them not to work outside campus. Currently I work on campus 20 hours a week and the school pays me accordingly. However, with the needs back home I need to work more hours and recently someone is offering me job without work permit. They told me I need to give them only my Social Security Number and they will pay me by check. My fear is… is it safe to work with out work permit? Is it a good idea use SSN for the job opening? In my SSN it also says that I m not allow for work. As far as I know F1 students are not allow work more then 20 hour in week. I do not understand this policy because  I know some friends who are working more then 20 hour in week without work permit and they are paid by check as well. Will they have trouble later? Please fell free and shared your experiences. I am sure some of you guy know very well about it. Would be grateful for your sharing about it.

Thanks

Do not use your SSN to work for more then allowed 20 hours however you can work for cash.

1

My suggestion, do not use the SSN unless you are in a extreme hardship. It might create problem later on so try to play safe.
ITSCA, do not get disheartened by a moron like garibbkochhora. Sajha is supposed to be a forum to help out each other and not to make fun of others problem in any sense.
garibbkochora, you are mentally retarded, you need some counseling and most probably therapy. My suggestion, go back to Nepal and work for Maoist, 'coz you seems to be a deserving candidate to work for them.

I agree with cham-Cham....do not use your SSN if you have not used it yet for any unauthorized work.....try not to use as much as possible; if you have no other choice left, then that is another thing. but if you can avoid it for unauthorized work, do not use it.

ITSCA,

Don,t work outside unless if it  is a  life and death situation. It looks like you already agreed not to work off campus. If your college knows you are working off campus, then situation would be much more worse than you could think of.  If you have scholarship now, do not worry about needs back home. One day you will be able to help your parents/brothers/sisters back home. Just try to keep up your scholarship.  Good-luck

ITSCA,

If the job is on-campus, then you might easily do five or six hours extra, depending on how well your school follows the 20-hr rule. Also, are you talking about during summer (now)? If you are, then remember  you are allowed to work for 40hrs on campus during summer/winter breaks. During the semester, don't exceed 30hrs.

But if the work is outside of campus, then I will be hesitant. I was in a similar situation few years back. But I tutored a kid and that was just in cash. You don't want your SSN floating around outside of campus jobs. It's not worth your scholarship man. If you are caught, think about the loss you will face just for couple of hundred extra bucks.

Peace.

ITSCA,

somebody had posted a thread few days back that he was out of status because he had exceeded the 20-hour on campus job by just a few more extra hours. apparantly, the employer did not have knowledge abt it, but somehow his international advisor found out abt it. so, if you plan to exceed your 20-hour on campus job, i suggest you make sure with all respected people that it is OK to do so.

good luck.

In short, F1 visas are not allowed to work legally but many does, coz there is no options other than taking risks to pay our fees and for living. Fren of mine got caught by INS and she was bailed out for 10G. We are not allowed to work off-campus at all but you could apply for 20 hrs off-campus jobs by showing your financial hardship, which if approved, allows you to work 20 hrs legally but the hrs you worked will be deducted from ur one-year-OPT......Please don't take this as a final say coz there might be better suggestions coming your way...Congratulations for ur upcoming gradutaions and GUD LUCK!!!

bullshit upon bullshits...

Drifter: economic hardship work permits do not deduct your opt time. it has nothing to do with opt. may be you're talking about cpt? or JPT ( jay payo tehi).

ITSCA: you are lucky that you have scholorship. try more scholorships or even stay poor. ramen noodles are cheap and well known among students.  unless it is for cash don't rish working off campus. you're so close to graduation. can't your family wait for few more months. then you'll have opt. you need to tell your family clearly that you're a student , you're not a dv winner or a h1b or a US citizen who can just work and save if they want to. but again, i don't know how urgent your family needs are. there is always the cost and benefit issue on any matter. and i'm sure you're mature enough to make your own decision. as far as the risk goes, yes !, it is risky. do people take that risk? yes, they do. should you? i don' tknow.. i don't know how bad u need it..

some of you guys need to go to ocean city and estes park. and ask any h1b or green card holder in america who was once a f1 , ask them, how they survived.