Application roles not not found when going to page from URL link

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We are using process cloud to send email notifications to users with a url link to one of our VBCS applications pages.  On our VBCS page we are using $application.user.roles to enable/disable buttons.  However, the roles appear to be empty.

Is this because we are jumping to a specific page in the application?  Does VBCS load up user roles when starting the application?  If so, is there a way we can load up user roles whenever we need to?