HAI is not the only option. There is one other school offering JAA Helicopter training and J1 visa. I don't know anything about their quality.
What I do know (I'm at HAI now), it's a great school. They have very well maintained helicopters and a quite a number of new Schweizers and still more to come. They are most likely the largest private helicopter school in the world.
The quality of training is very good. It's true that a lot of the instructors are low time, but trained to a very high standard by very, very, very experienced CFI instructors. The CFI training doesn't take 2 weeks like a lot of other schools but they train you far beyond the standard needed for the checkride.
That goes actually for all the training you do at HAI the focus on getting you ready for the operation not just a ticket.
The aircraft and instructor availabilty however is a big issue. You have to fight to get you're flights in. If you're not really on top it takes you a long time to get finished. But I think that always the case if you're not on top of things.
I do have to say I'd rather fly a bit less, in well maintained helicopters getting good instruction, as to flying around in old crappy stuff waiting for a 'real' engine failure.
By the way I did my PPL, CPL, CFI in 5.5 months so it can be done. I did not get hired however, but still think it is a good school.
There's not a lot of jobs out there at the moment, but getting your tickets doesn't automatically mean you get a job and it's just like any other education.