Found this short news: "The squad of VfB Amateure changed. With John Cummins an US American is supporting the offence. The 22 year old signed an one year contract and played for Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo (California) in the last season." Team is VfB Stuttgart Ama, they relegated to D4 last season, but are on their way back to D3. Cummins did not play for them yet - also don't know if they got problems with the transfer deadline as the news are dated on September 4th. Generally Stuttgart is an excellent place for talents as nowhere else they (are forced to) trust that much in players of their own reserves.
Well I was able to confirm that John Cummins did play for Cal Poly, and scored some golas for them as a forward, but other than that information is pretty spotty.
Americans are not required to get a work permit in Germany I believe so. And if so, the are real easy to get, not anything like England standards.
I am pretty certain they have changed the rules this summer. European passport required, plus aren't the FIFA regulations in effect at this time?
Well how about that. Perhaps two years ago there was news of a "John Cummings" getting a trial with the team (if you searched on that name you'd probably find an old Soccertimes story or two) on the recommendation of Juergen Klinsmann. After never hearing about him again I just figured he didn't exist. Turns out all that didn't exist was the "g" in his last name!
Kirovski failed to get promoted to ManU because he couldn't get a permit, but it hadn't been any problem with the reserves. I don't think it's an issue until you try to play for the big team.
The state ruled that only D1 sports teams are allowed to sign non Europeans (exception for D2 soccer teams). In this case you can assume that Cummins got a semi-pro contract for the pro team to avoid this rule.