# Allow users invited by staff to skip approval

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-users-invited-by-staff-to-skip-approval/231300
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** invites
**Created:** [June 28, 2022, 5:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-users-invited-by-staff-to-skip-approval/231300 "2022-06-28T05:14:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 17

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### Author: ![nathank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/nathank/32/290039_2.png) [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2023, 8:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-users-invited-by-staff-to-skip-approval/231300/17 "2023-04-09T08:30:16Z")

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With our large(ish) must\_approve\_users sites, this remains a right pain whenever we hold a physical event.

The issue is that we can’t just give folk a lovely QR code, invite, or link to jump straight onto our instance. At least not without a bit of an ugly workaround.

### The workaround and its issues

Turning off `must_approve_users` and making the site `invite_only` isn’t really satisfactory as:

1. Many folk seem to stuff up any invite process and try to come in through the (now locked) ‘front door’

2. The buzz created by the event generally spills over to non-invitees too - but they can’t apply to join either

3. There is still [a bug where staged users lose their custom user field inputs when they sign up](https://meta.discourse.org/t/when-an-existing-staged-user-joins-my-site-filled-in-user-custom-fields-data-isnt-saved/254926)

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-users-invited-by-staff-to-skip-approval/231300)._