Is the EB-5 amount for a Thunder Bay applicant eight hundred thousand or one million and fifty thousand dollars?

It depends on where the enterprise principally does business. The standard amount is one million and fifty thousand United States dollars, reduced to eight hundred thousand for an enterprise in a targeted employment area or for an infrastructure project, with statutory adjustment beginning on the first of January, 2027.

Confirm the designation before relying on the lower figure

The reduced amount exists to direct capital to particular places and projects, and the qualifying designation is a question of current fact rather than of history. A location that qualified when a project was first marketed may not qualify by the time the investment is made, and boundaries and unemployment data are revisited. Ask for the basis of the claim in writing, then verify it against the current criteria rather than accepting a brochure.

Beyond the capital itself, budget separately for the costs that sit around it: administrative fees charged by a project, legal fees for the petition and for the funds-tracing work, translation of foreign-language records, and later the cost of the petition to remove conditions. Those amounts are expenses rather than investment, and they should never be presented as part of the qualifying capital.