Sounds like they’ve already chosen you for the role but have to go through the hoops to make it all ‘legal’.
Glad this thread had a happy resolution before I saw it and the above comment – this happened to me when I was in a “temp-to-perm” job a few years ago – got told by the boss that the job was mine, then HR insisted, against my boss’s arguments, that they had to “go through the process” and then some other git got appointed!
(and being on agency terms, i.e. no entitlements whatsoever, the conversation went along the lines of “sorry, we’ve appointed someone else, can you clear your desk and we’ll pay you to the end of the day”)
Glad it worked out for you Lifer.