Champaign, IL Soliciting & Door-to-Door: Solicitor Permits (2026)

Section 25-55, in Chapter 25's transient merchant licensing article, requires a license before engaging "in the business of a transient merchant," issued in one of five classes: Peddler, Itinerant Merchant, Transient Merchant, Commercial Solicitor, or Transient Merchant Group Sales. A Commercial Solicitor license, the classification for door-to-door selling, only authorizes sales "by means of door-to-door solicitation," per subsection (b)(3). Section 25-57 lists the required application contents: the applicant's name and officers, a supervisor's contact information, the names and ages of everyone who will sell under the license, a four-year criminal background check for each seller, the applicant's State Retailers' Occupation Tax registration, a list of other municipalities where a similar license was sought in the past 12 months, and, for peddlers and commercial solicitors, the specific boundaries of the area where they'll solicit.

Section 25-58 requires an out-of-state or unregistered applicant to appoint the City Clerk as agent for service of process, and § 25-59 requires a $1,000 bond (or cash deposit) guaranteeing compliance with City and State law, valid for one year; the bond is waived for a merchant who has held a license continuously for three years without suspension or revocation. Certain sales are exempt from the license altogether under § 25-56, including garage sales limited to four days a year, sellers under 14, and registered charitable solicitations, though those exempt sellers remain subject to Article IV's other rules such as § 25-67's five-minute limit on staying in one spot.