I applied online and was interviewed remotely twice. After a few days they reached out and asked for my references, they contacted both my references and asked for my academic degrees. Once they had everything, they asked for my start date and verbally informed me that my offer was going to be ready in a few hours. After a few days they said that they are waiting for a final approval and will update me ASAP. I didn't hear back from them and followed up after a week and they said they are defining their budget (after posting the job and apparently interviewing a number of candidates, interviewing me twice, talking to my references, half way through the year ...) and will update me shortly. And thankfully that was the last time I heard from them. I'm grateful that it didn't work out, the company obviously wasn't a right fit. Changes happen during the hiring process, and sometimes a position is placed on hold due to a variety of reasons, but once a candidate gets this close to being accepted, the least a company can do is communicate with them instead of ghosting them.