My partner is an IT specialist who has been offered to work in the US on a HB1 visa via an agency, he's been offered work in New Jersey and Seattle, WA and we are torn between the two as both offer different things in terms of quality of life and raising a family. Does anyone have any experiences of these two places? All I seem to hear about them is NJ has trouble with the high property taxes and Seattle has mostly rain. Does anyone have any positive experiences as well as negative? I've been researching on sites such as city-data but it doesn't have that 'human' element that forums do, so hope you don't mind me enquiring here.

Also, I was thinking of applying for a work visa for myself as I'm a qualified registered social worker (child protection) with a masters, has anyone here heard of anywhere in the states (not just the above two) which need more social workers?

Thanks in advance!