The 20-hour on-campus limit is stricter during the academic year but there is no restriction on hours during official school breaks (summer, winter break) as long as you remain enrolled the following semester. Many students maximize this legally. The harder question is the remote work for foreign employers question — many immigration attorneys I have spoken with say working remotely for a non-US employer with payment going to a non-US bank account is technically outside USCIS jurisdiction, but there is no binding case law on this and it carries risk. USCIS could theoretically view it as unauthorized employment. Do not do this without getting an attorney’s written opinion.

Financial pressure during F-1 is real and I felt it deeply. What I did: maximized my 20-hour on-campus work allowance, found a CPT-eligible internship my second semester that counted toward my degree, and used my university’s emergency fund and food bank (yes, those exist and are not reported to immigration). Also, many universities allow you to work for the university itself in multiple capacities — as a teaching assistant, research assistant, and in a department job simultaneously, as long as total is under 20 hours. Most students do not know they can stack on-campus roles.