[Grammar] He asked her where she WAS/IS from

[Iryn_]

Hello!
1) He asked her where she WAS from.
2) He asked her where she IS from.

Why is the first sentence correct?
Country of origin is something that is always true for a person, so I thought the tense mustn’t change here.

 

[Iryn_]

The first sentence is possible because backshifting is always possible when the reported speech is introduced by a verb in the past tense.

So the second sentence is also correct?

 

[Roman55]

Yes, it is. I would naturally choose the first one more often than not, though

 

[emsr2d2]

So is the second sentence [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] also correct?

Note the correct word order in a question.