Thank you for your reply!
I was under the impression that applying for a PR would extend the current status (i.e. visitor) until a final decision on the application is made, my bad. Thank you for clarifying that!
I did apply for the OWP with my PR application, though. Does the submission of the OWP application grants implied status until a final decision on the application is made, or would that be true only when the application is actually being processed? If the latter is true, would the reception of the AOR indicate that both the PR and OWP are indeed being processed? Otherwise, what would be the sign that the OWP is being processed?
Due to the current situation is really difficult to assess if my current extension of the visitor status would be sufficient to guarantee legal status throughout the entire process sigh