Historic institutional abuse victims can apply for compensation online from tomorrow.
Victims will be asked for information, including supporting documents and any medical reports.
Vulnerable and elderly survivors will be prioritised.
Details of the compensation website, including the web address, will be made public tomorrow morning.
The first compensation payments are expected to be made within months.
Long-awaited legislation to set up a redress board for victims of historical institutional abuse was passed at Westminster in November - almost three years after the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry exposed serious sexual, physical and emotional abuse over decades at children's homes run by religious orders, charities and the state.
The board, which will decide on the different levels of compensation, was due to sit next month.
However, it is unclear whether the meetings will still go ahead remotely amid the coronavirus lockdown.
Margaret McGuckin from Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse (Savia) said the launch of the application process was a "significant move".
"We're very thankful and grateful that it will start," she said.
"It's brilliant news at this time. We were concerned that Covid-19 would overshadow it and it could be put on hold again.
"The majority of our people are elderly and vulnerable. This is a glimmer of light on the very dark journey that people have been on.
"Many of our people suffer from mental health problems. If this hadn't gone ahead it would have affected the most vulnerable terribly.
"People would just have given up."
Solicitor Claire McKeegan, of Phoenix Law, who represents the majority of abuse victims, said: "The survivors have battled for many years to obtain this acknowledgment of the suffering and brutality that was perpetrated on them as children.
"They have been hurt and broken by the most cruel abuses by those who were employed to love and protect them."
She said the opening of the compensation process "is a momentous day for all who have suffered and campaigned".
"We will be ensuring that the applications are submitted urgently to the Redress Board," she said.
