As a foreigner the potentially most convenient way to work in the Silicon Valley is a transfer within the same company ('intra-company transfer') due to the assistance often provided as a package, e.g. shipping, temporary housing and transport.

If this applies to your situation, look internally for a job in Silicon Valley and after you agreed on it, take the route to the L1 visa, which applies to intra-company transfers:

• L-1A Intracompany Transferee Executive or Manager
• L-1B Intracompany Transferee Specialized Knowledge

L1 visa also enable spouses to work based on the L2 EAD.

If you want to start fresh and find a new employer in the Silicon Valley a good starting point are the following job portals:

• LinkedIn: Palo Alto
• Indeed: Silicon Valley
• Monster: Silicon Valley
• Dice: Palo Alto

So get your resume and your LinkedIn profile ready for primetime (increasingly important) and you're good to apply. The visa process can be tricky, as quotas are limited by country and in 2013 the limit for the popular visa H1B was already reached within 5 days. Another option is to 'get a Greencard', which sounds simpler, than it is. Below a few links & references.

More information on visa and Greencards

• Immihelp: H-1B FAQ 
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Green Card
• VisaPro: Green Cards - 11 ways to get one
• RedBus2US - especially popular amongst geeks from India 

Image by liquene via Flickr.

• Shops and other institutions are open almost every day throughout the year, apart from Thanksgiving and Christmas Day
• Apart from these two days, for most holidays, the employers decide which holidays apply to their employees
• Here are some of the relevant holidays for California:
• January 1: New Year's Day
• 3rd Monday in January: Martin Luther King Jr Day
• 3rd Monday in February: Presidents' Day
• March 31: Cesar Chavez Day
• Last Monday of May: Memorial Day
• July 4: Independence Day
• 1st Monday in September: Labor Day
• 2nd Monday in October: Columbus Day
• November 11: Veterans Day
• 4th Thursday in November: Thanksgiving Day (and the day after)
• December 25: Christmas Day 

Image by Fede Racchi via Flickr

• Enter your job/employer/location on these salaries databases to get an idea:
• Payscale 
• Glassdoor

• Check the Median Household Income in the area of your future home: city-data.com

• For geeks moving within the US to the Silicon Valley, check out the cost of living comparison:
• CNN
• city-data.com (example for Palo Alto, scroll to the bottom)
  
• Update: The 25 Companies That Pay Interns The Most