I wasn't going to be an expat, I was going to become a Philippine national and finish my ratings training with the national airline in Clark to become a cadet then wide body S/O. I stated that in regard to the topic of flying jets in Asia with a wet commercial. I was in a position at the time where I thought I would marry the girl(who was from Manila) anyway, and a family friend of their's pitched me an offer, so I strongly considered it. As far as expats go in the country, there have been so many mergers and the like that my info may be outdated, so take this with a grain of salt. Back in 2009 when I was looking into this, the 4 big players over there were Air Philippines, Cebu Pacific, Asian Spirit, and of course Philippine Airlines. I only found info on expats for Cebu Pacific so I'm guessing the others only hired nationals. I think Cebu had the A319s fenced off from expats who could only fly the ATRs, and I had only spoken to Australian expats at the airline. I'd imagine they didn't have to attain citizenship, and for all know, some of them may be flying the new A330s there over now. But largely, you need a big rec if you're a white boy wanting to fly over there. Then again, with all the mergers and new carriers over there and Clark just North of Manila set to become almost the size of HKG, who knows, maybe they will open the floodgates to US pilots.
It all varies, of course, but typically, the corporate gigs are month on/month off, or at worst 2 on/1 off. Airlines give you, from what I've seen, a very small window to commute back. Keep in mind how tiring it is when commuting, and now imagine 9+ time zones each time you commute (depending on where you are). Myself, personally, I will hopefully never have to accept a contract that isn't even with time off/time on, and a minimum of 20 days off in a row. It's just too exhausting to commute back, finally recover, then have 6-7 days off, and have to do it in reverse.
For the most part, that is correct, unfortunately. Go get some time in a type that works overseas (I know, easier said than done), if you are really interested in it, and look in a year or two. Sorry that doesn't help much, but that is, for the most part, how it is done. Like I've said before, the entire reason they hire expats is because we have experience in the jets that the locals don't.