Carolina T. Curbelo
Professional Memberships
- American Immigration Lawyer Association (AILA)
- Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey (HBA-NJ)
- New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA)
- National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP)
Admissions
- New Jersey
- United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
- Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- United States Supreme Court
The Law Office in Ridgewood, NJ
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Carolina’s law practice primarily focuses on immigration and real estate. She is the daughter of refugees who fled Communist Cuba when Fidel Castro came to power. As immigrants who had to rebuild a life in the United States, Carolina’s parents and grandparents instilled in her the importance of education as the true “passport” to freedom, and taught her the value of hard work and independent thinking. Not only did Carolina grow up fully bilingual in Spanish and English, but she developed a strong cultural awareness and knowledge of geopolitics thanks to nightly family dinners that discussed US-Cuban relations and other world affairs.
While in college, Carolina worked with her aunt, a real estate broker with an office in the Elizabeth/Newark area, and witnessed firsthand the harsh disparities facing homebuyers of color in the 1990s. Aside from overt discrimination, many of the clients in the community her aunt was serving faced other inequities such as predatory and unfair lending practices, language barriers, and the absence of competent attorneys to advocate on their behalf.
Now, with her own law practice, Carolina is uniquely positioned to help clients, whether families, individuals, or business investors, achieve both pillars of “The American Dream”, (1) obtaining lawful status in the United States, and (2) becoming property owners or homeowners.
In her immigration work, Carolina represents individuals in proceedings before the U.S. Immigration Courts, as well as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for family-based applications, naturalization, and humanitarian visas such as Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), U visas (victims of crime), Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and T visas (victims of human trafficking).
Carolina is highly experienced in removal defense and deportation, especially representing clients in matters of asylum, withholding of removal, relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and cancellation of removal. Additionally, she advises small-business owners and entrepreneurs on business immigration matters.
In real estate, Carolina is skilled in handling all types of matters, and has represented both buyers and sellers in the residential, commercial or condominium space, as well as distressed homeowners facing foreclosure.
Carolina received her Juris Doctor from Vermont Law School and interned for the Hon. Judge Jose L. Linares for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. After law school Carolina clerked for the Hon. Joseph S. Conte, J.S.C. for the Bergen County Vicinage – Civil Division. She is active in numerous community and legal organizations, such as Kids in Need of Defense, Latin American Legal and Educational Fund, Northeast Legal Services of New Jersey and serves as the Treasurer of her local New Jersey Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyer Association for the 2023-2024 term.