For the first one--1131/biweekly salary, this is about 35-50K income, depending on how much he/she puts into retirement account. For this income, he could get refundable college expense for 1000 dollar credit, extra child credit if he/she has more than 2 children under 17. Maybe even EIC. So his/her refund could be (129X26 + children credit, EIC credit, and college expense credit).
For the 2nd cases, if someone switch from a H1 visa to F1 visa, and she/he could be cosnidered as resident alien for the year, or someone stay as F1 for more than 5 years, she/he could be treated as resident alien, too. If the income is not high, just as the case above, it is possible.
Really no need to figure out how others have done to get more money back from Uncle Sam. Everybody has his/her unique situation, and it is not comparable. We should discuss the logic behind tax law, and figure out what might apply to yourself.
