PHPUnit in Laravel 5.2 Not Passing When Form Validation is Added

I'm currently trying to add validation to my forms. It works fine when I test it but it fails when I run my unit test on it. Removing the validation code allows it to pass with no problems. I tried rewriting the validation portion of the code to do the check manually but no luck. I'm not sure what else I can try. Any help is appreciated.

The error I get:

Did not land on expected page [http://localhost/dashboard].

Failed asserting that two strings are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
-'http://localhost/dashboard'
+'http://localhost/reset-password'

Here's what the form validator looks like:

 public function submit(Request $request)
    {        
        $validation_errors = [];

        $currentUser = $request->user();

        $currentUser->password = Hash::make($request->input('new_password'));
        $currentUser->reset_password = false;

        $user = User::where('id', $currentUser->id)->first();

        // >>>>>> Validation Code Start <<<<<<<< //
        // >>>>>> Removing this block allows it to pass <<<<<<< //

        $newPassword = $request->input('new_password');
        // Check if password is the same as the one in the database
        if(Hash::check($newPassword, $user->password))
        {
            return back()->withErrors('Your password can not be the same as your old password.');
        }

        // Check for special characters
        if (!preg_match('/[\'\/~`\!@#\$%\^&\*\(\)_\-\+=\{\}\[\]\|;:"\<\>,\.\?\\\]/',
        $newPassword))
        {
            array_push($validation_errors, "Please make sure your password contains a special character.");
        }
        
        // Check for numbers
        if (!preg_match('~[0-9]~', $newPassword))
        {
            array_push($validation_errors, "Please make sure your password contains a number.");
        }

        // Check for Upper/Lower case
        if (!preg_match('/[A-Z][a-z]*/', $newPassword))
        {
            array_push($validation_errors, "Please make sure your password contains a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters.");
        }

        // Check for Password length
        if (strlen($newPassword) < 10) 
        {
            array_push($validation_errors, "Please make sure your password length is a minimum than 10 characters.");
        }

        if (count($validation_errors) > 0)
        {
            return back()->withErrors($validation_errors);
        }
        // >>>>>> Validation Code End <<<<<<<< //

        $currentUser->save();

        return redirect()->route('/dashboard');
    }

And this is the unit test code:

public function testResetPasswordSuccess()
    {
        $this->betestUser();
        $this->visit('/reset-password')
            ->type('123', 'password')
            ->type('123', 'password_confirm')
            ->press('Save')
            ->seePageIs('/dashboard');
    }

And for anyone curious, this is how I originally validated the form:

$this->validate($request, [
            'password' => [
                'bail',
                'required',
                'confirmed',
            ],
            'password_confirm' => [
                'bail',
                'required',
            ],
        ]);

via Chebli Mohamed