The policy change is expected to go into force in some areas of China in the first quarter of 2014, Yang Wenzhuang, a director at the National Health and Family Planning Commission, told the official Xinhua news agency.
Beijing said last month it would allow millions of families to have two children, the most radical relaxation of its strict one-child policy in close to three decades. The move is part of a plan to raise fertility rates and ease the financial burden on China’s rapidly aging population.
Authorities were in the process of calculating the number of eligible couples, Yang said.
China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, is expected to formally approve the new policy later this week.
The policy move has buoyed baby-related stocks and has seen a rush for fertility-boosting products.
China would eventually scrap family planning restrictions, but was unlikely to abandon its family planning policy in the near term, a senior official said last month.