Acknowledging common law marriage –both heterosexual and homosexual–as an alternate type of family, established by means of natural relationships, is an irrefutable reality for the current Latin American society. The legal effects of this fact are unquestionable, as it is the consequence of the generation of the need to protect them in legal matters. We performed a research on international regulations to study this phenomenon, which was developed under the qualitative strategy of a content analysis of the relevant documents that, in the end, would lead to the writing of this article as one of the results. As evidenced in a further section, the protection of these domestic partnerships is commonplace, although it is evident that the level of protection is not the same across the countries studied within this work. Some countries provide no protection at all, mainly because their existing legislation constitutes an impassable barrier for it. As a consequence, radical changes are required in this matter and regarding public policies, so they guarantee the exercise of the rights of this type of families and their members.