@mark-robustelli sorry for the late reply.
Thanks to your email I just found the issue in another thread: https://fusionauth.io/community/forum/topic/1406/link-in-email-verification-not-working-first-time
The key was to read the documentation shared by Joshua (https://fusionauth.io/docs/v1/tech/tutorials/gating/gate-accounts-until-user-email-verified/#troubleshooting-email-and-registration-verification).
The issue was that I had selected the wrong email template. I had selected Email Verification
when the correct one was Registration Verification
.
And hijacking my question: is there a way to automatically verify the email when the user clicks on the link in the email rather than ask for confirmation? I like the idea of a 2nd confirmation as it should stop some email scanners that click on all links in an email, but it's also good to have the least amount of friction.