Based on a policy ethnography, this article analyzes discretionary powers of Swiss asylum caseworkers in a context characterized by an important sophistication of law. Starting from the observation that the daily work of asylum caseworkers is strongly oriented and controlled by their superiors, their colleagues, institutional rules and guidelines, as well as by their socialization the author identifies different types of discretionary powers, on what caseworkers’ discretion rest, and he discusses how they perceive and use it differently according to caseworkers and to the configurations in which they are embedded. Thus, the article argues that asylum caseworkers have different types of room for maneuver according to their tasks, to the situations they face with, to the configuration in which they work, and to their own characteristics (capitals, attitudes, experience). Eventually, this article shows the relational and collective dimensions of bureaucratic discretion.