Possible cache issue? Not sure
If I had to guess, you need to add a $this-&gt;redirectToPostedUrl(); after your call to craft()-&gt;users-&gt;saveUser($user); to cause a proper redirect/page refresh after submission.

Update:

If you're doing this over AJAX, then you're going to be responsible for updating any DOM elements with their new values, or reloading/redirecting the page so they'll display.

In a non-AJAX context, a call to $this-&gt;redirectToPostedUrl(); will do the redirect for you.