WordPress 403 error on form submission with Ajax

the issue was to do with cookies. In a multi-site setup, the cookies that are set upon user login depends on which subsite the user logged in from; not all cookies give equal authority to submit forms. so the solution is either you (a) change your cookie domain to one common one in wp_config.php – in which case a user can log in anywhere and the cookies will be fine, or (b) have a redirect so that there is only one site that users can log in from. Because of my unique setup, I opted for (b)