Re-entry after 5 year ban

[aandb]

This is a bit of a convoluted question, so I'll start at the beginning. In 2005 my husband(UK citizen, I'm a US citizen) was arrested for domestic violence. At that time, he had been overstaying his visa waiver for about 9 months, as we had been meaning to file his request for permanent residency, but had been lazy and put it off. Anyway, since he overstayed, USCIS took him to a detention center, where he stayed for about a month, and one day they just told him he was going home, they bought him a plane ticket, and sent him on his way. He never received any papers of any kind, all that happened was that his A-number was written in his passport. One of the agents told him he'd have a 3 year ban, another told him it would be 10 years. So, anyway, it's 4 1/2 years later, and we've started trying to find out when he could possibly re-enter, just to visit(we both live in the UK now, but still have family in the States). From what we read, we realized that maybe he wasn't actually technically deported. We called EIOR and found out that his A-number isn't in their system, so obviously he wasn't actually deported. The woman there said it sounds more like an expedited removal. We tried asking ICE what the length of his ban is, and they said we'd have to file a FOIA to find that out. So, until we do that, we're going with the working theory that it's a 5 year ban, since that seems to be what you get for expedited removals. Anyway, if it does turn out to be a 5 year ban, he'd be able to return in a few months, which would be awesome, but we're wondering what the chances of getting approved for a B-2 are. Also, assuming they let him visit, what are the chances of him ever getting a spouse visa, so we could one day move back to the US? Thanks!