Hi Nettie!
I was kind of in the same situation, i overstayed my visa for 6 months before we sent our application.
We call agents of cic before applying inland to know if it was better to go for outland or inland, and they reccomend us inland (even if i was already out of status) we called three times before sending the app only to be sure cuz agents sometimes dont have the right info. Yes its true you can be request to leave the country, altought this only happens if you get yourself in trouble and you are demand to "identify". While you stay out of trouble i guess you'll be ok, thats what i do. By immigration rules, you cannot leave the country while app is in process so be careful if you decide to stay. By rule, you are also allowed to present an app even out of status, this means that a visa officer cannot reject your app only for that reason, but if he finds something else wrong in your app then he can use that against you.
In my case, we have four years total together, 3 of them living together and 2 of them legally married by the moment of the app, i dont know if this might influence but is like that.
About requesting an owp by the time of aip, well, we call about 4 times to cic to know how to proceed, seems like it is the same, yes we do have the right to try to restablish our status, but in the owp you have to declare that you are out of status, in my case, ill explain why in an extra letter.
Dont know if this will help you, but is all i know based on my own experience.
God bless and good luck!