How to keep a session or cookie alive after visiting and leaving a page

[dagogodboss]

Ok so am trying to build a referral system using the OAuth system, am working with the laravel framework. So when a user vist the registration page with a referral link it create a cookie and a session. for to register all that is provided is the social button. so whenever the user clicks on the register with google or facebook. Once the user comes back to the site the session and cookie disappear. Why is that? below are the files i think may be helpful

Where I created the session and cookie base on the ref

if ($request->has('ref')){
                $referral = ReferralLink::whereCode($request->get('ref'))->first();
                $response->cookie('ref', $referral->user_id, $referral->program->lifetime_minutes);
                $_SESSION['ref'] = $referral->user_id;
                request()->session()->put('ref', $referral->user_id);
    }

Where I retrive the session and cookie base on the ref

  $session = request()->session()->get('ref');
            dd(request());
            $referral = \App\User\ReferralLink::where('user_id', $event->referralId)->orWhere('user_id', $session)->first();
            // dd($event->user, $event->referralId, $referral);
                if (!is_null($referral)){
                    $provider = $referral->user;
                    \App\User\ReferralRelationship::create([
                        'referral_link_id' => $referral->id, 
                        'user_id' => $event->user->id,
                        'referree_user_id' =>  $provider->id,
                        'reward'    => 'no',
                        ]);
            }

the

`dd(request())`

returns session and cookies but without my own cookies and session