Can you get an exspunged crime taken completely off your record?

Federal law prevents a person convicted of domestic abuse from handling firearms.  You correctly state that the military will not normally allow a person convicted of domestic abuse to enter service due to the restriction. However, you state that your wife's charge was expunged.  I'm not sure what you mean by expunged.  Iowa law only allows certain offenses to be expunged- minor in possession of alcohol for example.  If you meant that your wife had a deferred judgment then she did not have a conviction if she completed probation successfully.  She never had a judgment and sentence and thus no conviction.  She would be eligible to handle weapons.  However, there would not be an expungement or a need for expungement.  The arrest will remain showing on the state records, and cannot be removed.  An arrest without conviction, though, should not trigger the federal law, if the case was resolved with a deferred judgment. If your wife was convicted, there is no way under current Iowa law to expunge her record if the conviction was in Iowa.  Other states may have a procedure, but I cannot state or give advice concerning that state's laws. Perhaps you should have your attorney look at your wife's record and clarify her record.