However you resolve this, I think time will be a problem. My friend who is resident in China applied to renew his UK passport in very good time and ended up on a humanitarian visa* for a short time! If you are travelling a lot, get your employer to say you need to do business in KSA, Isreal, Uganda and DRC. I trusted one of my managers enough to let him keep my second passport in his safe - he applied for visa on my behalf, a few times, while I was out of the country.

* The Chinese were surprisingly nice about it.