MyTarget - I dont disagree that you could go from flying a R22 to a medium or heavy aircraft in the North Sea. However, even if someone racked up 100 hours on a R22 on FAA license, its still not gonna solve the problem of having to go get the JAA IR and paying crazy costs for it. Was only trying to say, that whether you have no ICAO IR, or you have 100 hours on a foreign license, you still have to pay that horrendous amount of money for JAA IR. Then you can get a job in the North Sea. On a side note, to date, I have never heard of someone outside the North Sea going from A R22 to a S92. Would be f*ucking awesome if it were possible though! If someone has, please share the story.
With regards to the $65,000 for the combined FAA and JAA course, this is the point that I want to stress. These are just guideline numbers. If you do absolutely everything perfectly and get it all with the bare minimum. It rarely happens that way. I know it has happened, but rarely. Therefore, you really need to budget for more than the $65,000 Bristow are advertising. Lets not forget housing and living expenses for the 12-18 months you will be at school and out of work. I know Florida is cheap, but it still adds up. Plus the partying, that everyone doesn't quite account for! ha ha ha!
Now that the J1 visa is changing, you will only get 6 months to work in the States, and that's if you choose to fork out more money to get the FAA Instrument rating, CFI and CFII - costs going up still. Add another $25,000 minimum for those according to Bristows site. Now you have to leave America with the few hundred hours you acquired, you will most likely end up heading to the North Sea, as there are very few places around the world you will get a job with about 500-700 hours - bring on the JAA IR. Like I said earlier, about 40,000. here's hoping that by that time things will be better and jobs will be available again. As it is a sad thing to have seen so many people spend all this money, not get a job and just go find other industries to work in.
Thats all I am trying to point out - just make sure when planning this, you go in eyes open with regards to all financial aspects and future outlooks. Be very mindful of the licenses you wish to acquire and where you think you would like to work. You set out not planning where you might want to end up and this will all get very, very expensive.
Of course there are other alternatives that might be more cost friendly. Perhaps go to South Africa for your flight training and then to America for the licenses, so save money on flying. Maybe just do your FAA licenses, and then study distance learning with Bristol Online for the JAA ATPL, giving you more time to work. Stay at home in Europe and keep your day job and just slowl build up your flying career from schools in Sweden. Obviously there are lots of choices.
Also, like Pandalet said, I dont ever believe in the "pay for our course that will ge you employed with us". Heard that one too many times.
All that being said, by all means, go for it! Enjoy it, and good luck.