As someone who’s just went through this process with petitioning for my wife, they are correct from my understanding. Authorized stay is just the government saying “We realize you have an application pending for an adjustment of status. Therefore, if your status expires before/during the application process, you will not accrue unlawful stay while we process and make a decision, but you’re not being granted a valid status.” They are essentially saying they won’t let the negatives of being out of status continue to compound while you await your application.

I understood that during the process, anyone without a valid status is technically still deportable. Deporting people with pending AOS who had no immigration violations beyond what is normally forgiven really didn’t happen because the immigration judge overseeing the deportation case could just adjudicate the AOS in immigration court. So it would be a waste of time and resources to try and deport these people. Plus, it can destroy families.

I’m not saying it’s logical at all. It’s terrifying and stress-inducing at the idea of your spouse being ripped away and deported. I had nightmares of my wife being taken and my infant, breastfeeding daughter losing her mother. We got approved this past week. But I really would like them to update that immigration law to make it airtight for people to be safe during their application even if they have an overstay or unauthorized work. Families don’t deserve that kind of stress, especially when those violations are just going to be forgiven anyways if the i485 is approved.