Steve2022

I have read the IR1 guidelines carefully, and the USC needs to be resident and have established (or intend to establish) domicile in the US.  That is not the same as saying they need to be in the US at the exact moment the foreign spouse passed through a POE. 

Going back a few months, while I was waiting for our cases to get interview dates I looked everywhere I could come up with any data points about how cases were progressing from DQ to interviews in USEM.  Based on like 20-30 cases I found where people self-reported plus our own cases I concluded that USEM was totally caught up on CR/IR1-2 cases and they were going from DQ to being assigned interview dates within  month or so whether they were expedited or not.  I could not see a pattern where expediting made a meaningful difference, and all cases seemed to move quickly after DQ.  I almost suspected they may be expediting anyone who asked, based on the flimsiest of reasons, on the basis that there was no backlog so they could expedite at will.  Like.... 'no one else is in line...so sure we'll expedite you.... why not.   There were actually like two outliers where expedited cases were inexplicably delayed and it might be plausible that they got mixed up in the Embassies chaotic scheduling of other cases rescheduled due to sputum test delays or other issues, whereas the cases scheduled by NVC were "50 interviews slots showed as available by the Embassy,,,, 38 cases are documentarily qualified,  EVERYONE gets an interview date."  

Just checking -- you received the email saying the case has been DQ-ed?  I ask because for an IR1 case, it's surprising that you have not received the interview letter after 30 days.  In recent months, CR1/IR1 cases get scheduled within 3-4 weeks of DQ.  Mine was scheduled 3 weeks from DQ date.  No expedite.
 

Blow $4K on a lawyer ...   wouldn't think of talking you out of doing that.  At least your understand you would be blowing $4k .      
 
If you case file is still at NVC that is where you would need to file for the expedite.   
 
Once your case file is at the embassy (CEAC status shows READY) you could request an expedite there (not complicated to do) .. but with all the lockdowns by the Philippine government not sure how effective it would be.   The embassy would be moving along much faster if it weren't for the all the lockdowns regarding the CCP virus.

The age of my wife's parents was way off. We didn't fix it. We did fix her sex as it was listed as male and at that time we I didn't even notice that the birth dates were off on the parents. It was never an issue.

No issue whatsoever, but would be a good idea to fix it anyway. 

For any different Philippine document you could think of their are different spellings of any and all of the in-law's names.  The family was apparently not big on consistent spelling. We didn't bother even trying to explain the discrepancies and no one cared.  Maybe it could get some slight consideration if somewhere down the road wife wants to sponsor mom but I cant see how it would matter at all on your wife's case.

I had typo for my mom's bc. I didnt get it corrected. I added supporting documents such as baptismal and affidavits. My mom's middle name was incorrectly spelled (1 letter typo). No issues with I130 or Visa issuance