Add new user and add meta at once
wp_insert_user returns your new user’s ID, if created successful. You can add the user_meta to this ID: $userid = wp_insert_user( $userdata ); if ( !is_wp_error( $userid ) ) { // check if insert was successful add_user_meta( $userid, ‘verification_ref’, $ref ); // add the meta } else { /* Error Handling */ }