From the Census Bureau: The Questions on the Form

Ten question, ten minutes they say. Meanwhile, this is from Wikipedia:

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a project of the U.S. Census Bureau that replaces the long form in the decennial census. It is an ongoing statistical survey, sent to approximately 250,000 addresses monthly, and thus more current than information obtained by the long form.

One in six households used to get the long form. This has been replaced by the ACS, which is what your wife's friend got. The census forms ask for data as of April 1 -- so they should be out about then.