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

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

please i need assitance

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',
                    ]);
        }